[olug] IPv6

[Lou Duchez]

> Who's your ISP that is giving you a /48 and you have a single dynamic IPv4.
>
> I need to know more about how your getting IPv6 from what ISP before I can help with the rest.

Well, I don't actually have IPv6 at this point (as far as I know).  This is about me learning about IPv6 in general, because I get the feeling I'm going to need to know sooner than later.  The grand hope is that I'll form a reasonably good concept of where I need to end up, and then I'll figure out how to get there.  You've been very helpful, thank you!

So if I have a very basic DSL or cable modem connection, it sounds like I should expect a /64 IPv6 (if indeed they offer IPv6 at all).  But then that will give me up to 2^64 devices that all have publicly accessible IP addresses, all static if I so choose.  And that's just with ratty ol' bottom rung DSL or cable modem -- none of this 2^n-3 addresses jazz any more!

For me anyway, the biggest conceptual difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is the public/private divide.  In IPv4 you have IPs in the private range (like 192.168.0.1) that can be routed to the WAN through a router performing NAT.  In IPv6, ALL addresses are in the public range*, you still need a router to get to the WAN but it doesn't perform NAT, and the router also controls which devices on your LAN can be accessed from the WAN.


*: Technically, IPv6 also offers ranges of addresses that are local-only, but they cannot be routed to the WAN.  If you have an office printer that you want to be reachable by computers on your LAN but should never be accessible to the Internet, you can give it a local-only address.  Right?