And so the actual IPv6 deployment on the public Internet begins…
February 5th, 2008 by Dan YorkAnd so the real use of IPv6 on the public Internet begins. In a BBC article “Overhaul of net addresses begins“, the writer notes this:
On 4 February the master or root servers for the net will have a small number of records added that are written in IP version 6 (IPv6) added to them.
This means for the first time that computers using IPv6, typically a PC and a server, can find each other without involving any IPv4 technology.
Yes, indeed, IPv6 is now live in a useful way.
You have, of course, been able to use IPv6 for quite some time, but only really between sites that knew the address of the other end. The global DNS system for resolving names to IP addresses only supported IPv4 at the top-level root name servers. So if you tried to connect to any other site out there via DNS, you were always getting IPv4 addresses through what are called “A” records in DNS parlance. Now, as of yesterday, you can also get back IPv6 addresses through “AAAA” records.
IPv6 is still a long way from being commonly deployed, but at least with this step the people out there who want to use it, or at least experiment with using it, can now actually resolve addresses through parts of the global DNS infrastructure. Of course, DNS only returns an IPv6 address for sites that have such an address entered into DNS, so it won’t truly start being useful until more people: a) have IPv6 addresses assigned to their servers, etc.; and b) enter those addresses in their DNS tables. Still, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
FYI, those of us who subscribe to the IETF discussion list were told about this impending change back on January 4th, and if you would like to really understand how all this works on a technical level, a report is available from ICANN’s Root Server System Advisory Committee and Security and Stability Advisory Committee that goes into intricate detail about the impacts of this move. For those not familiar with how the DNS system works at a technical level, Appendix A starting on page 19 is well worth a read.
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February 5th, 2008 at 10:41 am
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February 12th, 2008 at 11:12 am
This is sort of correct, but seems to imply that prior to the DNS root gaining IPv6, AAAA lookups didn’t work - not true. I’ve had AAAA records for years, and people have been using them just fine. It’s just that somewhere along the line, some computer somewhere had to use IPv4 in the lookup.
Not always the computer doing the lookup, mind - mine do all their lookups to a recursive DNS server that’s dual-stack, so I could turn off IPv4 on my workstation and DNS would still work perfectly well - but my DNS server would still have to use IPv4 sometimes.
But now, as the second paragraph you quoted notes very clearly, IPv4 is now surplus to my requirements. It’s now possible to run IPv6 only, without any IPv4 involved at all, as long as you don’t need IPv4 for other purposes. IPv4 isn’t yet quite legacy - too many sites don’t yet speak it - but it’s a clear step in that direction.
So your title - is, in some respects, backwards. Instead of this being the beginning of IPv6, it’s actually the beginning of the end of IPv4. I think that’s a bigger story than you give it credit.
February 12th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
@Dave - Thanks for the comment. Yes, you are technically correct in that AAAA records certainly could be retrieved before. The point, as you agree in your comment, is really that now the entire communication can occur over IPv6. Yes, this is “the beginning of the end of IPv4″. That would have been a great title if I’d thought of it! Thanks, Dan