Addressing plan exercise for our IPv6 course

Matthew Walster matthew at walster.org
Fri Jul 30 08:13:54 UTC 2010


On 30 July 2010 08:32, Jeroen Massar <jeroen at unfix.org> wrote:
> On 2010-07-30 09:27, Matthew Walster wrote:
>> On 29 July 2010 18:08, Leo Vegoda <leo.vegoda at icann.org> wrote:
>>> There's a good chance that in the long run multi-subnet home networks will become the norm.
>>
>> With all due respect, I can't see it. Why would a home user need
>> multiple subnets?
>
> * Wireless
> * Wired
> * DMZ
>
> Those three I see a lot at various people's places.

I have *never* seen those three security zones separated outside of a
business or the house of a nerd who runs his own Linux distro
(Smoothwall etc). Furthermore, you're then pushing all that traffic
into a $30 router which almost guaranteed will be underpowered.

Look at it this way: When I signed up at tunnelbroker.net, I received
a /64. I was happy, and I went about my business. I wanted to have a
play with something a bit bigger, I pressed "Assign /48" and it was
ready to go in under a second. That's how it *should* work, or at
least, in my opinion.

> Also note that you should stop thinking of "today", think about what
> might be possible in 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years...

I'm not thinking of today, I'm thinking about the people who use these
services. They don't know about networking, they don't know about
security apart from "install this virus checker". Most of them will
laboriously transfer files from system to system using a USB drive (or
floppy disk!) even though there's a big flashing icon on their desktop
saying "put files here and they'll magically appear on your other
machine". These people don't know and don't *care* about networks.
They care about the service they get. That isn't going to change in 50
years.

If you genuinely think that regular residential users need multiple
subnets to create a zoned config... You're wrong. It *will* piss them
off, even if transparent. It's not just because of the speed (which as
you say, will improve over time) it's because suddenly their wired-in
Xbox in front of the TV just won't talk to the wireless Xbox their
mate just brought round to have a play with. If you say that's down to
education, you've entirely missed the point.

> The /48 for end-users might indeed be a bit on the much side, but a /56
> is IMHO perfect fit for any home-site. The huge advantage of just giving
> out /48s though is that you don't have to care about if the connection
> is terminated at a home or a big corporation, as they say with shirts:
> one size fits all, simply as it is way too big.

Completely agree.

M




More information about the NANOG mailing list