Text 34842, 79 rader
Skriven 2009-08-11 10:02:48 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Grant Taylor (2:2/2.0)
Ärende: FidoNews 26:32 [02/05]: Rebuttals To Previous Articles
==============================================================
Hello Grant,

On Monday August 10 2009 02:10, FidoNews Robot wrote to All:

 FR> Just because a given piece of software is not IPv6 compatible does not
 FR> mean that it will not be usable in an IPv6 environment.  It simply
 FR> means that it will have to have helper applications.  There are
 FR> already helper applications in the works that will help translate from
 FR> IPv6 to IPv4 and back again.

I am a bit puzzled what you mean by helper applications. I know of gateways
that allow browsing IPv6 only websites over the IPv4 network by Ipv4 clients.
An example can be fond at http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net/ But those only work for
one specific protocol, in this case http.

 FR> This would mean that you would be possible to use non (native) IPv6
 FR> applications on an IPv6 network via these helper applications that do
 FR> IPv4 <-> IPv6 protocol (header) translation.

The header contains the source and destination addresses. How do I translate an
IPv4 address into an IPv6 address and vice versa? an Ipv4 address is 32 bits,
an IPv6 address is 128 bits. Where does it ge the additional 96 bits of
information from?

Take Irex for example. When entering a node in the node manager I enter the IP
address or host name. When I enter the host name, When sending Ireax uses the
Ipv4 address to compose the packets. The Ipv4 address is taken directly form
the node manager dta file or obtained by querying the DNS system to gleen the
Ipv4 address from the host name. How can a helper application get the IPv6
address if the application it is supposed to help simply does not have the
information?

I am puzzled...

 >> But if we can not upgrade our FidoNet software to support IPv6 and
 >> ISP's force us to use IPv6 only, there is still another trick: IPv4
 >> over IPv6 tunneling. If every node install IPv4 over IPv6 tunnel
 >> software, we can build our own virtual private IPv4 network and run
 >> Fido over IP over that.

 FR> I agree that this could / would work.  However this will make IPv4
 FR> connected BBSs even more isolated in such as visitors will not be able
 FR> to simply telnet to them any more.

First, we should make the distinction between BBS's and FidoNet nodes. For
Fidonet nodes, a Private Virtual network could work. It would put an extra
strain on the coordinators, because they have to administrate the VPN as well,
but that would be manageable. The solution is far from ideal, but it would
probably work. And the article was about "FidoNet and IPv6" wasn't it?

For BBSs...

 FR>   I think it will in effect turn the IPv4 connected BBSs in to an
 FR> isolated island much like an isolated LAN (even if it is a wide area
 FR> connection).

Yes, it probably would. But if the provider does not hand out a public IPv4
address any more, it is that or nothing. A BBS that does not have a public IPv4
address can not be reached by a user telnetting via IPv4 over the public Ipv4
network. Period.

 FR> Though, I do see a possibility for something like this.  Namely what
 FR> if there were gateway system that ran the IPv4 <-> IPv6 helper
 FR> programs that translated from IPv6 addresses to other IPv4 only
 FR> systems with in said isolated island.

Convincing the usesr to go IPv6 may not be the herdest part. Most OS in use by
users are IPv6 capable and IPv6 capable Telnet clients are already available.

Getting your favorite BBS software IPv6 capable may be the harder part. So what
you propose may work. But it would make the sysop dependent on the sysop of the
gateway system. FidoNet sysops in general do not like to be at the mercy of
others... ;-)


Cheers, Michiel

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