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                           GENERAL ARTICLES   
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                   IPv6 in 2024   
                   By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555   
      
      
   Another year has passed. When we compare the statistics as published   
   by the end of 2022 and 2023 with those of today, we see that last   
   year's dip has been filled, but there isn't any overal growth any   
   more. The number of Fidonet IPv6 nodes keeps hoovering just over   
   100. At the moment of writing there are 109 nodes.   
      
      
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         2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025   
      
      
   The number of nodes carrying the INO4 flag dropped from 5 to 3. So the   
   vast majority of Fidonet still supports full IPv4. Not really what I   
   expected, but that is what it is.   
      
   What also strikes me is that about a quarter of the Fidonet IPv6 nodes   
   still uses a tunnel. Most of them via he.net, but a few via another   
   tunnel broker. Apparently there are still many ISPs around that do not   
   support IPv6. Shame!   
      
      
   Outside of Fidonet IPv6 continues to grow. Slowly but steadily. Accor-   
   ding to Google worldwide IPv6 adoptation now hoovers around just under   
   50%. Almost half of those visiting Google do so via IPv6.   
      
   https://www.google.com/intl/nl/ipv6/statistics.html   
      
   Some even claim the tipping point has been reached where IPv6 is now   
   the norm but I would say this is premature.   
      
      
   Regarding my personal situation: I participated in a project building   
   a particulate matter sensor. The idea is to have many of these sensors   
   spread around to continuesly monitor and collect particulate matter   
   data over a long period of time: maps.sensor.community. Zoom in on   
   my location and click on sensor #87057 to see the partical density,   
   temperature, air pessure and relative humidity here.   
      
   The thing is build around a an ESP8266 NodeMCU V2. It has limited   
   resources so the designers "forgot" about IPv6. I managed to raise the   
   interest of one of the developers and some changes to implement IPv6   
   were made. The experimental firmware version that I run now does http   
   via IPv6 and so data are exchanged in IPv6 with the servers of the   
   sensor community. The user interface is also available via IPv6. But..   
   the ESP8266 does not have a hardware clock and so the only source of   
   time are the NNTP servers on the internet. And its NNTP is IPv4 only   
   for now. Same for DNS: IPv4 only. So this gadget is far from being   
   able to function in an IPv6 only environment. Pity because it is   
   equipmemt like this that prolongs the need to support IPv4. What I   
   should do of of course instead of complaining is to delve into it and   
   add full IPv6 support myself. But Frankly, at my age I mis the drive   
   and the energy. Plus that it will only solve this particular problem   
   and not the problem of the hundreds or thousands of similar gadgets   
   where the developers choose the easy way of ignoring IPv6...   
      
   Then again: my two globalping probes (runnig on a NanoPI Neo 512m) are   
   doing fine with full IPv6 support: dash.globalping.io.   
      
   All the same, we are stil a long way from IPv6 only.   
      
   For some more on doing away with IPv4, here is an interesting article   
   by Alex Haydock about running an (almost) IPv6 only environment. The   
   title of the article is: No NAT November:   
      
   https://blog.infected.systems/posts/2024-12-01-no-nat-november/   
      
   For those who read the article it should be clear that the greatest   
   botlleneck for operating in an IPv6 only environment are applications   
   that use literal IPv4 addresses. Reaching IPv4 only servers adressable   
   by a symbolic host name from an IPv6 only environment is possible   
   using NAT64 en DNS64. Those can be installed on the perimeter of the   
   IPv6 only system or beyond. Doable without very much effort. But   
   literal IPv4 adresses are another kettle of fish. For that you need   
   CLAT and that must be installed on the system running the application.   
      
   And that brings us back to Fidonet. Is Fidonet using literal IPv4   
   addresses and is it possible to use CLAT on Fidonet systems? Short   
   answers: yes and no. Yes, Fidonet uses literal IPv4 adresses and no,   
   for the vast majority of Fidonet systems it is not possible to install   
   CLAT. For an explanation on the latter, read the above article.   
      
   So where do we find these liteal IPv4 adresses? In the nodelist! Per   
   FTS-5000 and FTS-5001 literal IP addresses can be used instead of   
   symbolic host names in the nodelist. For IPv6 this option is very   
   rarely used but in the IC's daily nodelist (#357 at the moment of   
   counting) there are 68 literal IPv4 addresses. I may have missed some   
   or my filter may have had some false positives but is clear that it is   
   more than just a few and too many too ignore.   
      
   So do we need to do something about it and if yes, what? It is obvi-   
   ously not a matter of great urgency. AFAIK there are no Fidonet   
   systems running in an IPv6 only environment. And that may not change   
   for a while. IPv4 will be with us for a some time, maybe quit a long   
   time and the pioneer spirit that once was the driving force of Fidonet   
   is almost gone. So we may not see Fidonet systems running in an IPv6   
   only environment any time soon. Maybe never. Despite that it is always   
   good to be prepaired. So how should we deal with the literal IPv4   
   addresses in the nodelist?   
      
   Option 1: Convince the sysops in question to go install IPv6. This is   
   no guarantee that the literal IPv6 adresses wil disappear, but   
   presently all dual stack systems use symbolic host names. Convincing   
   all sysops concerned may be difficult. If it was easy for them to   
   install IPv6 they would probably have done it already. Plus that to   
   convince them, they have to be reached first. That may be a problem in   
   itself...   
      
   Option 2: Convince the sysops in question to use a symbolic host name   
   for adressing their systems. This may not be easy either. It has no   
   direct advantage for them and "it works" doesn't it?   
      
   Option 3: Handle it at the NC level. For NCs it would be relatively   
   easy to create host names for the less than handfull literal IPv4   
   addresses in their segments and enter them manually. Presuamably those   
   literal IPv4 adresses are static so it is not a great burden on the   
   NCs. Then again, we may run into the same problem as when trying to   
   convince individual sysops.   
      
   Option 4: Deal with it on the RC, ZC or IC level. For the RC and ZC   
   level we have the same probem as with te NCs. Some may not be all that   
   enthousiastic. But for the IC level it may be doable. The IC runs a   
   program called ErrFlags and maybe Erflags could be adapted to replace   
   literal IPv4 addresses with symbolic host names.   
      
   Option 5: Something else on a global scale. But... hey wait... we   
   already have that! It is called binkp.net. So for those who want to   
   run Fidonet in an IPv6 only environment using NAT64 and DNS64 to   
   reach IPv4 only systems, just configure your binkd to use binkp.net   
   and the literal IPv4 adresses will be taken care of. OK, that only   
   works for binkd but there is just one system using a literal IPv4   
   address that has no binkp capability so for that one you just have to   
   configure a manual override. If you want to make a direct connect   
   using vmodem that is...   
      
   Did I test this? Yes of course! See next week's article...   
      
      
   In order not to have to tell the same story over and over again, I   
   sometimes refer people to Fidonews articles I wrote in the past.   
   Since there seems to be no easely available searcheable archive, I   
   made a list of these articles. I hope I did not miss any.   
      
   My previous Fidonews articles about IPv6:   
      
      
   FN 26:31 Jul 2009   FidoNet and IPv6   
   FN 28:04 Jan 2011   FidoNet and IPv4 depletion   
   FN 28:07 Feb 2011   Fido and IPv6 Day   
   FN 28:16 Apr 2011   APNIC runs out   
   FN 28:20 May 2011   The IPv6 echo   
   FN 28:31 Aug 2011   A SECOND LIFE FOR THE LINKSYS Part 1   
   FN 28:32 Aug 2011   A SECOND LIFE FOR THE LINKSYS PArt 2   
   FN 28:45 Nov 2011   A "first"   
   FN 29:04 Jan 2012   World IPv6 Launch Day, 6 June 2012   
   FN 29:09 Feb 2012   A SECOND LIFE FOR THE LINKSYS Part 3   
   FN 29:38 Sep 2012   RIPE is out of IPv4 addresses.   
   FN 32:17 Apr 2015   IPv6 penetration in the nodelist   
   FN 32:26 Jun 2015   ARIN is out of IPv4 addresses.   
   FN 32:52 Dec 2015   IPv6 in Fidonet by the end of 2015   
   FN 33:02 Jan 2016   IPv6 in two thousand SIX teen   
   FN 33:06 Feb 2016   Another barrier broken.   
   FN 34:01 Jan 2017   IPv6 in 2016   
   FN 34:13 Mar 2017   SixXs Sunset 06-06-2017   
   FN 34:30 Jul 2017   TV without IPv6   
   FN 34:31 Jul 2017   DS-Lite emulation experiment v2.0   
   FN 34:37 Sep 2017   DS-Lite emulation experiment 2.0, the results   
   FN 34:33 Aug 2017   DS-Lite: a solution   
   FN 34:38 Sep 2017   DS-Lite Emulation experiment v2.1   
   FN 35:01 Jan 2018   IPv6 in 2017   
   FN 35:53 Dec 2018   IPv6 in 2018   
   FN 36:52 Dec 2019   IPv6 in 2019   
   FN 38:01 Jan 2021   IPv6 in 2020   
   FN 38:20 May 2021   100 IPv6 nodes   
   FN 39:01 Jan 2022   IPv6 in 2021   
   FN 40:01 Jan 2023   IPv6 in 2022   
   FN 41:01 Jan 2024   IPv6 in 2023   
      
   Happy IPv6 in 2025.   
      
      
      
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