> Ironically, IPv6 "just works" totally out of the box, but IPv4 does not.
Not very ironic at all. IPv6's autoconfiguration (through link-local addresses, the Neighbor-Discovery Protocol, etc.) comes from engineers with decades of experience (and frustration) in managing ISP-sized netblocks.
A friend of mine had a similar "issue". He had a modem too new to be on Comcast's approved list so they refused to register it. After plugging it in anyways, IPv4 was filtered to a Comcast captive portal with modem registration instructions but IPv6 stuff worked fine... whoops.
Fascinating, does that mean you can plug a random DOCSIS 3.0 modem into any Comcast port, and get free IPv6 access? That's an effective way to encourage deployment, but I'm sure they'll fix the bug if they haven't already :-)
Not very ironic at all. IPv6's autoconfiguration (through link-local addresses, the Neighbor-Discovery Protocol, etc.) comes from engineers with decades of experience (and frustration) in managing ISP-sized netblocks.