Alyx :neocat_flag_ace: on Nostr: Honestly, while I fully support the intention behind it, I still don't think it's the ...
Honestly, while I fully support the intention behind it, I still don't think it's the right approach.
IPv6 and everything that comes with it is designed with the idea that the IP address itself doesn't really matter. Clients are auto-configured, often with completely random IPs, and you're generally supposed to access an IPv6 service through a domain, not directly via the IP address.
To put it differently, if you're as dependent on an IPv6 address as you are on your mobile number, you're doing IPv6 wrong.
Switching to another ISP should require no more effort than updating a couple of DNS records. Considering you change ISPs rarely, perhaps once a year or less, I think this is perfectly reasonable. If you use something like DynDNS, you won’t have to do any work at all.
I know this is just an idea, but I’d also like to point out that this won't be cheap. Technically, it's definitely possible with relatively little effort, but there’s no way around the need for new and additional hardware at the ISP and backbone levels. The cost for a single router would easily be four to five times the current price. Applying this internet-wide would end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars. I don't think it's reasonable to make such a massive investment just so people don’t have to update their DNS records when they change ISPs occasionally.
Again, I like the intention behind it, but I don't think this specific idea is helpful.
I suggest changing the idea to something like:
**Every ISP should offer an easy one click way to get a static IPv6 prefix free of charge.**
IPv6 and everything that comes with it is designed with the idea that the IP address itself doesn't really matter. Clients are auto-configured, often with completely random IPs, and you're generally supposed to access an IPv6 service through a domain, not directly via the IP address.
To put it differently, if you're as dependent on an IPv6 address as you are on your mobile number, you're doing IPv6 wrong.
Switching to another ISP should require no more effort than updating a couple of DNS records. Considering you change ISPs rarely, perhaps once a year or less, I think this is perfectly reasonable. If you use something like DynDNS, you won’t have to do any work at all.
I know this is just an idea, but I’d also like to point out that this won't be cheap. Technically, it's definitely possible with relatively little effort, but there’s no way around the need for new and additional hardware at the ISP and backbone levels. The cost for a single router would easily be four to five times the current price. Applying this internet-wide would end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars. I don't think it's reasonable to make such a massive investment just so people don’t have to update their DNS records when they change ISPs occasionally.
Again, I like the intention behind it, but I don't think this specific idea is helpful.
I suggest changing the idea to something like:
**Every ISP should offer an easy one click way to get a static IPv6 prefix free of charge.**