DoD IP Space

Thu Feb 11 23:25:27 UTC 2021

On Fri, 12 Feb 2021 09:05:51 +1100
Mark Andrews <marka at isc.org> wrote:

> Almost everything you buy today works with IPv6.  Even the crappy $50 home router does IPv6.

	You're testing very different gear than I am.  I have not found
this to be true, and I look harder than most.

	I put every new CPE I come across, high-end and low-end,
against our auto-config dual-stack setup to see how well they work with
v6.  Our setup is fairly simple: dhcp v4, dhcp v6 with /56 PD
I also test with static IP configs (/30 or /31 v4, /127 v6 with routed /56 or /48)

devices seem to fall into many different categories:

  * Just works.  I think I have fewer than 5 tested devices that land here.
    Some of them only after I reported bugs and managed to get fixes
    (these are my favorite vendors).
  * almost just works; minor bugs that can be worked around if you research how
  * works if configured a very specific way, but not without ISP cooperation
  * can be made to work if you are an expert who will go past the normal interface.
  * works when static, but requires extra help and knowledge to get working with
    dynamic config or just doesn't
  * allows you to configure it as if it would work, but doesn't;
    sometimes works at first but fails over time (I do long-term stability testing).
  * doesn't even pretend to work (even if the packaging claims support)
  * doesn't work.  Doesn't claim to.  No plans to make it work.  Stop asking us.

	More surprising is that having a big name or being a no-name is
no indication of what category you will fall into.  Juniper SRX needs
a little help due to known bug, for example.  Another nice, big-name
device starts by sending a malformed packet to my dhcpv6 server and
just fails before getting out of the gate.  Ubiquiti ERx was a nice
surprise as far as functionality and configurability, but no support in
the GUI.

	Support is non-existent in SMX solutions even from the biggest
names.  This is often a surprise to them when I point it out.

	I'm convinced most people claiming IPv6 support is common
haven't actually tried it with many devices.  We support v6 one way or
another on all our Internet services, but it has been a chore, to put it
mildly.  CPE hasn't even been the biggest problem.

--TimH