June 6, 2012 archive

Jun 06

Updated Version of “Migrating Applications to IPv6” Book/Ebook Available Through O’Reilly

If you’ve bought the ebook or printed version of the book within the past few weeks, you should have received the most recent updated version.  As I mentioned previously, I submitted to O’Reilly a range of updates – and have confirmed that an updated version is now shipping.  It includes:

  • Added new section on recent events and changes that make it critical for application developers to be thinking about IPv6.
  • Added section on connecting to DNS servers over IPv6 and about DNS and DHCPv6
  • Added sidebar about RFC 5952, “A Recommendation for IPv6 Address Text Representation”
  • Expanded text about “Happy Eyeballs” algorithm and included mention of RFC 6556 for testing for happy eyeballs.
  • Added brief info about lessons learned from World IPv6 Day
  • Added info about World IPv6 Launch in 2012
  • Added new section on testing resources
  • Added new section about setting up an IPv6 test network
  • Updated IPv6 NAT info to point to RFC 6296
  • Added warning about SMTP’s way of showing IPv6 addresses
  • Added additional resources, including a new section about some informational RFCs that may be of interest to application developers.

If you previously purchased the book directly from O’Reilly, you should have been notified of this update.

I’m very appreciative of the feedback received thus far – and definitely welcome further feedback!  I’ve also received many kind words and comments that the book has been very helpful.  That’s great to hear… and exactly why I wrote it!

Jun 06

IPvFoo and IPvFox Provide An Awesome Way To See IPv6 / IPv4 Usage By Websites

Want to know how well a website you visit works with IPv6? Whether the site uses components that are only available over IPv4? Or even whether you are connecting to a site using IPv6 or IPv4?

If so, there are two outstanding extensions/add-ons that you can use:

In both cases, what happens is you get an addition to your browser’s location bar that shows you either a “6″ or a “4″ when you connect to a site. Even more useful, it can show you when a web page requires pieces or components from other sites – and the addresses used by those sites:

IPvFoo

I’m using this in all my browsers now and it has in fact helped tremendously when I was trying to debug a connection issue. It also very much highlights the fact that websites today build pages by making calls out to many other websites… so creating an web page that is entirely available over IPv6 can turn out to be challenging. These extensions can help you see where the reliance on IPv4 continues.

Plus with World IPv6 Launch upon us, it’s admittedly just a bit fun to see how many sites you connect to do indeed have IPv6 connectivity.

Jun 06

Google Promoting IPv6 From Their Main Search Pages

As World IPv6 Launch has been rolling out over the past hours, it’s been great to see Google placing a link right on their main search page:

Google uk

The link brings you over to Google’s excellent explanation of IPv6, complete with drawings of pipes. :-) Kudos to Google for doing this and helping potentially educate people who have no clue about IPv6 and who just go to Google to search.

Google 1

Jun 06

IPv6 Is Now REQUIRED In All IP-Capable Nodes – And Standards

IETF LogoLooking for another great reason to advocate IPv6 support within your organization or company?  Consider this – the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has now stated clearly that IPv6 is REQUIRED in all “IP-capable” devices and systems.

On a practical level, the IETF cannot, of course, flip a magical switch that just makes everything IPv6 (if only!!)… but what this means is that you can pretty much expect that all new standards coming out of the IETF will require IPv6 – and it’s not too hard to think that there will be some new technologies/services that may come out (and be standardized) that are IPv6-only. So if you want to keep your company/organization on the leading edge of technology, this is another reason to look at how you can can transition your company’s products and services to work with IPv6.

As stated in RFC 6540 published in April 2012:

 Given the global lack of available IPv4 space, and limitations in
   IPv4 extension and transition technologies, this document advises
   that IPv6 support is no longer considered optional.  It also cautions
   that there are places in existing IETF documents where the term “IP”
   is used in a way that could be misunderstood by implementers as the
   term “IP” becomes a generic that can mean IPv4 + IPv6, IPv6-only, or
   IPv4-only, depending on context and application.

The full RFC can be found at:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6540

The key “best practices” recommended in the document include:

  • New IP implementations must support IPv6.
  • Updates to current IP implementations should support IPv6.
  • IPv6 support must be equivalent or better in quality and functionality when compared to IPv4 support in a new or updated IP implementation.
  • New and updated IP networking implementations should support IPv4 and IPv6 coexistence (dual-stack), but must not require IPv4 for proper and complete function.
  • Implementers are encouraged to update existing hardware and software to enable IPv6 wherever technically feasible.

As we saw with World IPv6 Launch last week, IPv6 is now becoming “the new normal” for the Internet. If you aren’t looking at how you can move your organization to IPv6, you will be left behind.