IPv6 Netowrk Device Numbering BP

Karl Auer kauer at biplane.com.au
Mon Nov 5 11:22:17 UTC 2012


On Mon, 2012-11-05 at 10:07 +0200, Eugeniu Patrascu wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 8:28 AM, Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:
> > - if you need to remember an IP address, you are doing it wrong
> Because DNS always works flawlessly and you never need to remember IP
> addresses, right ?

If you are NOT memorising IP addresses and NOT wasting time on fragile
encodings buried in your IP addresses, then your addressing is more
robust and more flexible. So you occasionally have a problem with
whatever system maps your IP addresses to human-usable entities  - so
what? You can't memorise ALL your addresses, so you have that problem
anyway. And let's not forget your (possibly emergency) replacement -
sure, *you* have lots of addresses memorised, but what about other
people? You need a suitable mapping system *anyway*.
 
> I think you're looking for problems where there are none. I see
> nothing wrong with BAD:BABE or with DEAD:BEEF. Your thinking suggests
> that there are only good babes and live beef, which is wrong on so
> many levels. Positive discrimination is as bad as discrimination and
> it creates more problems than it solves.

*You* don't see a problem, so there is no problem? I *personally* have
no problem with either example, but I can see how others might, and how
others might have a problem with constructs similar in nature to these
ones. I think it is likely that others would find those sorts of things
objectionable, I see no benefit to using them, and I see several
technical and non-technical disadvantages to using them - so my
recommendation is not to use them.

As to "my thinking", your comments on that are confused. I don't
recommend crafting words, regardless of what words they are. How you got
from one OP-supplied example and one well-known example to "my thinking"
and thence to positive discrimination is a mystery to me.

The OP asked for reasons why embedding wordiness in IPv6 addresses might
not be a good idea. I gave several reasons, some technical, some not.
You've attacked two non-technical ones, with counterarguments that
amount to "is not!".

> > - clever addresses are guessable addresses for scanners, and highly
> > identifiable in data as probably attached to high-value targets
> What is a clever IP address ?

One that has obviously been constructed by a human - such as one
containing readable words, obvious numeric patterns and the like.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://www.biplane.com.au/blog

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