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                   IPv6 in 2025   
                   By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555   
      
      
   Another year has passed. When we compare the statistics as published   
   by the end of 2023 and 2024 with those of today, we see that there is   
   little or no growth. The number of Fidonet IPv6 nodes keeps hoovering   
   around 110. On 31 December there were 116 IPv6 nodes. Considering that   
   Fidonet a s a whole has stopped growing a long time ago and is now   
   shrinking that isn't really bad.   
      
    120 _|   
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    110 _|                                               .         .   
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     80 _|                           .   
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     70 _|                      .   
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     60 _|   
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     50 _|   
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     40 _|            .   
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      0 _|______________________________________________________________   
            |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |   
         2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026   
      
   Outside of Fidonet IPv6 continues to grow. Slowly but steadily. Accor-   
   ding to Google worldwide IPv6 adoptation now hoovers around or 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.   
      
   Back to Fidonet.   
      
   The number of Fidonet IPv6 nodes that still uses a tunnel dropped from   
   a quarter to a fifth. Nearly all of them via he.net, but a few via   
   another tunnel broker. So there is improvement but there are still too   
   many ISPs around that do not support IPv6. Shame!   
      
   The number of nodes carrying the INO4 flag dropped from 3 to 2. So the   
   vast majority of Fidonet still supports full IPv4. Not really what I   
   expected, but that is what it is. What I expected was that providers   
   switching their customers to CGNAT would have resulted in much more   
   IPv6 only nodes. But that obviously did no happen. Yet. That does not   
   mean CGNAT did not happen and that it is not a problem. With the   
   coming of FTTH (Fibre To The Home) especially here in Europe we see   
   many new ISPs that do not have lots of "historic" IPv4 and who do not   
   have, or do not want to spend, large sums of money to buy IPv4 on the   
   market. So they use CGNAT to have their customers connect to the IPv4   
   internet. Some of these providers - like mine - give customers the   
   option to get an IPv4 address outside the CGNAT pool and some don't.   
   But Fidonet sysops are resourcefull and they look for work arounds. In   
   Germany there is feste-ip.net that jumped in the gap. They provide   
   IPv4 access to servers run at home via an IPv4 to IPv6 port forwarder.   
   I mentioned that in my article titled "DS-Lite: a solution" in FN   
   34:33 Aug 2017. Some Fidonet sysop are using this or a similar service   
   to deal with CGNAT.   
      
   Another remarkable development is that a number of Fidonet systems   
   advertise IPv6 capability via an AAAA record on the host name in the   
   nodelist, but they dot not actually support IPv6. Dmitry Protasoff   
   maintains a system that (among other things) monitors the nodelist   
   for systems that advertise IPv6 capability.   
      
   https://nodelist.fidonet.cc/analytics/ipv6   
      
   Compare that to the list of nodes That advertise IPv6 but are actually   
   IPv4 only:   
      
   https://nodelist.fidonet.cc/analytics/ipv6-advertised-ipv4-only   
      
   So some 20% of the nodes advertising IPv6 connectivity do not actually   
   support it. One of the problems with dual stack is that if one of the   
   advertised connection mechanims fails, it can take a long time before   
   it is discovered. Most applications just fall back to IPv4 if IPv6   
   fails. That includes nearly all binkp capable mailers. Winpoint is the   
   odd exception.   
      
   This large number of nodes that advertise IPv6 connectivity but that   
   do not actually support it is a bit of a mystery to me. My impression   
   is that many of those sysops are not even aware of the situation.   
   They make use of he services of a DNS provider that supports DDNS   
   and they get an IPv6 address assigned by default. Of which they do   
   not seem to be aware and so they do not configure their systems to   
   accept incoming IPv6 calls. This is a bit of speculation as most of   
   the sysops concerend do not respond to netmail, the systems seem to   
   run on autopilot.   
      
   Another phenomenon that may have existed for some time but that only   
   recently emerged from Dmitry's statistics is that there are a number   
   of nodes who's IPv6 reachability is unstable. One day they have IPv6   
   and the next day they haven't. To be back again after a couple of   
   days.   
      
   https://nodelist.fidonet.cc/analytics/ipv6-weekly-news   
      
   I have no explanation but the fact many of these nodes reside in   
   regions 46 and 50 suggests it may have to do with the war going on in   
   Eastern Europe. The observed instability may or may not be   
   specificallly linked to IPv6, it may affect their IPv4 reachability as   
   well, but that was not investigated.   
      
      
   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   
   FN 41:53 Dec 2024   IPv6 in 2024   
   FN 42:01 Jan 2025   IPv6 only experiment   
      
   Happy IPv6 in 2026.   
      
   No AI was used for writing this article.   
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