| Honestly IPv6 is a clusterfuck. From the horrible addresses (why are they impossible to memorize? Who thought that was a smart idea? At least I can wrap my brain around IPv4) to the need for specific support in literally every layer of the network stack. If you are going to mention gateways or other methods make it work please just stop. No end-user is going to do that, or rather no appreciable amount of end users are going to do it. If your fix starts with “why don’t you just…” then please stop living in a fantasy world. I was excited for IPv6 when it was announced, I was excited years later, I was excited a decade later, now I’m just tired of it. 2024, year of IPv6 and and the Linux desktop, ok sure. My ISP, literally the best available in my area and fairly cutting edge in every other aspect, has zero IPv6 support. While the idea of every device having its own public IP address was attractive to a younger me, I look at it with a bit of horror now. The privacy/security aspects alone are staggering and you rarely want your device to be publicly available by default. I’m not going to exceed the 16M+ limit of 10.0.0.0/8 so I don’t see why I would ever want to use anything but IPv4 internally for my sanity. Are STUN/TURN servers fun? Is needing some central server ideal? No but the alternative (everyone can talk to everyone directly) makes my head hurt with the implications and footguns. At the end of the day I’ve started disabling IPv6 as a matter of course. Leaving it on is a landmine I’m laying for my future self. I’ve dealt with too many issues directly myself or for clients/customers which end with “let’s try disabling IPv6, oh it’s working now?” (on my end or theirs) that I’m done. Something drastic would have the happen to get me to change that thinking and seeing how it’s been over 2 decades and major websites I use daily still don’t support IPv6 I’m not holding my breath. |
Every time someone brings up this point, I have to assume that they know nothing about IPv6 but the superficial things.
If you work with IPv6 long enough you will remember the addresses, we all remember 192.168.0.* through years of typing it repeatedly and looking at it. Not because it is easily to remember. I can already recall 2606:4700:4700::1111 or 64:ff9b::101:101 from memory.
>My ISP, literally the best available in my area and fairly cutting edge in every other aspect, has zero IPv6 support.
This is almost exclusively an Euro-American phenomenon. I am not sure why you are lashing out on IPv6 when it's the ISPs' fault. In most East or Southeast Asian countries we are looking at double-digit % of IPv6 deployment, the moment you click on the IPv6 checkbox you get IPv6 connectivity here.
>The privacy/security aspects alone are staggering and you rarely want your device to be publicly available by default.
Another one who mistakes "having a globally unique address" with "public accessibility". Boo.
>“let’s try disabling IPv6, oh it’s working now?” (on my end or theirs) that I’m done
Just say that you are lazy in fixing IPv6 problems. I have found that lots of old networking guys would say "it's defo my fault somewhere" when IPv4 fails but when it comes to IPv6 it's always IPv6's fault somehow. Protip: most of time it isn't.