Re: [44net] An anniversary of a sort - 36 years

On 4 September 2017 at 07:51, Brian Kantor <Brian(a)ucsd.edu> wrote: CIDR notation is a good way to explain the difference in the address spaces. A /32 of IPv4 is a single IPv4 address which people should be familiar with getting from their ISP as standard. A /32 of IPv6 is the same "percentage of the address space" as it is in IPv4. The difference being that in IPv6 a /32 can number an entire ISP with tens of thousands of customers each with hundreds of subnets containing as many globally addressable services as they like. So, everyone should already get more IPv6 addresses than they "need" from their ISP by default. The general "I need global addresses" use case doesn't really apply to IPv6. 2a06:8187:fe19::/48 is a direct allocation I got from RIPE. I decided to get a "static allocation" from RIPE instead of one of my ISPs so of course I had to pay for the allocation. It costs an entire £5/year through my chosen LIR and this is IPv6 space that is "in my name" and not associated with a specific connectivity provider. I am currently routing this through a free tunnel to my home connection. That £5/year is a single site /48 allocation which contains 65536 *subnets*. For other locations I also have 2a06:8181:ab00::/40 which is 256 of those /48 allocations and costs £60/year. This really is an absolutely massive allocation by IPv4 standards and the only justification I have is that this is the next size up from a single allocation! I am routing this IP space directly to different virtual servers. For reference purposes: TunnelBroker.net - Will give you a static /48 IPv6 allocation on a nearby "VPN server" that can be routed to any IPv4 address for free. They also provide free BGP tunnels if you have your own ASN and IPv6 allocations. RMLH - An IT consultancy offering ASNs for £50 one-off, /48 of IPv6 £5/year, a massive /40 of IPv6 £60/year. It's not their main line of business but I can't comment on anyone else. Mentioned mostly as a reference for pricing. VULTR.com - my "main" provider for routing most of my IP space. Has 15 locations offering basic virtual servers for $5/month with BGP available everywhere. In short: It's cheap and easy enough for you to sort out your own IPv6 addressing and routing rather than asking Brian to do it for you. ;) The above numbers could also be used to make a different argument - if you know several people who want an "amateur radio allocation" then you could always self-fund a local one! It's also a good opportunity to learn about a more obscure side of network routing. One final resource I can link to is https://u4477715.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=PkDgZs68dlw2b-2FVF7LiU-2FWpYt… which will give free IPv6 allocations for you to route yourself, but does require some technical know-how with regards to setting up your database objects etc as there is obviously no support - I do have an allocation from them, however I would be cautious about putting production services in IP space I didn't have a contractual agreement for given how cheap it is to get a "proper allocation"! Hopefully that explains why an Amateur Allocation makes less sense with IPv6, whilst avoiding that messy political area around who pays for the cost of a large enough allocation for every amateur in the world at commercial rates. With regard to the future of an Amateur Network as some kind of VPN overlay, I would like to point out 2 relevant hackerspace projects. ChaosVPN is taking a similar approach to the current AMPRNet system, just with less outdated protocols *cough*. However, perhaps https://u4477715.ct.sendgrid.net/wf/click?upn=Ki4chJONuNfM0VomxEE-2BocPAFq6… is a more relevant model to be looking at? I believe someone has already started along the lines of signing public key certificates of licensed amateurs... - Mike