Customer-premises equipment

A CPE supplier.

LOL thanks for that guys I"ll put in in my "things I learnt today" file

Heya,

I think IPV6 will introduce a new component of automatic management. Rather than having someone have to type PPP details for each user you could instead have 'device' logins then handle user authentication via some sort of web interface.

We've seen it with 802.11 wireless and at least some parts of 3G deployments require it but due to IPv4 limitations it's impossible (and pretty much legislated against) to assign every device a unique IP in the 'open world'.

IPv6 I think will change that allowing more 'seamless' user management. As for when people start supporting it, does Telstra/Bigpond support real IPv6?

Hardware devices (or CPE's) will evolve with the requirements. You could potentially do an embedded USB router thingo to deliver IPv6 with good separation to an IPv4 host.

Just my 2c,

Stu

Telstra's Next IP network (this is the network they got from that failed carrier which built a national IP network which they got on the cheap - name escapes me) does I believe. As does Reach, so they are all ready to go

I probably should have qualified that with 'without screwing you on price'. We all know IPV6 is available but until your major ISPs regulate it's release to the general public without having to pay for it things are going to go slowly.

Stu

In a nutshell, how do you convince every network tech in the world to install IPv6 (not to mention arranging for every broadband customer to buy a new modem) when the internet is working just fine right now?

It is inconceivable that such a thing would ever happen. It's similar to convincing everyone in the world to buy an electric car now because there won't be any oil left "soon".

But unlike oil, the day IPv4 runs out people aren't suddenly going to rush to get IPv6. The internet will continue to work just fine. Instead, ISPs will probably start rolling out NAT on a large scale. (and charge through the roof if people want a *REAL* ip)

BUT! you might shout, why at that point wouldn't the ISPs just switch to IPv6? Because it won't fix the problem! It won't solve an ISPs immediate IP needs unless the rest of the world changes to IPv6 at the same time.

The only thing I can see working is worldwide legal enforcement of IPv6. So unless there is world government I don't know about, scratch that idea.

Plus, sending a bunch of stubborn network admins to jail isn't the greatest way to solve a problem...

In summary:

G'day Stu,
It's a wonder they didn't use MAC Address to achieve that. (A) They are already in place (B) They are, for the most part, unique (C) They are already in place and (D) If I understand PPPoA enough, it would be a more efficient protocol.

Reach don't do IPv6 yet.

Umm, MAC addresses are strictly hardware layer, IPv# is network comms level. The major problem is that IPv4 couldn't possibly be a 1:1 match with the raw number of hardware devices in the world. IPv6 on the other hand, now you're talking.

Stu

Definitely possible as an interim solution but doing NAT on a large scale (100K+ users) especially at ADSL# speeds is extremely difficult to achieve without affecting overall performance.

Umm, I dare say that once IPv4 is fully allocated there'll be another year or so where ISPs are using their reserves. The major problem is that as this occurs it can directly impact business components. It's worth reminding ourselves here that by even some conservative estimates the internet community has at least 2 years to actually sort things out and your 'early adopters' have kinda made in investment 5-10 years into the future.

As evidenced at least in part from our American counterparts:
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../07/18/2349242

Stu

I understand MAC Addresses relate to hardware but where would you have software that wasn't on a hardware base? Perhaps multiple addresses for the one item would be a problem but I wouldn't have thought it insurmountable.

What would be the count for unique MAC Addresses anyway?

MAC Address: 00-FF-00-FF-00-FF (Is that 2^16^6?)

Than I stand corrected than...

Heya,

A MAC address is a 48 bit number. That translates to about 280 trillion combinations.

IPv4 is 32 bits. That is about ~4.3 billion combinations.

IPv6 is 64 bits. That is about 18,000 quadrillion combinations.

Big differences but cool idea.

Stu

It might have almost worked except for the NIC's that reuse MAC Addresses and servers that required multiple addresses. 280 trillion might have been enough. As long as the Internet doesn't leave Earth.