[arin-ppml] The Library Book Approach to IPv4 Scarcity

[John Santos]

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

[I think Chris Grundemann wrote the "> >" stuff]

> > entry).  In other words, we must maintain open access to the 
> > IPv4 Internet until the IPv6 Internet is a truly viable 
> > replacement for the community at large (enterprise, 
> > education, end user, etc).
> > 

[...]

> Sure, people who SERVE files out on websites and who make other
> services available had jolly well best get their act together and
> make sure their software runs on IPv6, pronto.  But I don't have
> any sympathy for any of those people who are caught with their
> figurative pants down.  They are being PAID by their customers to
> know what they are doing!!

How the hell am I supposed to do that as a software developer when
A) I can't get IPv6 space from ARIN and B) I can't get it from my ISP?

(I have a legacy class C, so I'm fine for IPv4.)

> 
> Could you be more specific on this barrier of entry thing?

I've tried several times to get IPv6 set up on our LAN.  Each
time I run into the immediate barrier that I can't get IPv6 address
space.

Use the IPv6 equivalent of RFC1918, say some.  No, that's been
abandoned, say others.  Get it from ARIN.  No, we're too small.
(Under current rules, the most we could legitimately qualify for
of IPv4 is a /24 (what we have), and since we don't qualify for
a /22, we can't get IPv6 from ARIN.)  Sign the LRSA and start
paying, and then you can get it.  No, not as far as I can tell...
We are still too small.  Get it from your ISP.  Our ISP (Verizon)
doesn't appear to offer IPv6 and there are 0 hits searching their
web site for it.

The only viable strategies seem to be 1) to make up something out
of whole cloth and hope that when IPv6 eventually becomes viable
and we get interconnected, the whole thing doesn't crumble to
oblivion because there are way too many "pirated" addresses out
there or 2) to wait for everyone else to do something first and
eventually play catchup.

[...]

> 
> The job that takes the longest is the one that is never started.
> 
> Step 1 is getting IPv6 DEPLOYED at all of the top and mid-tier
> networks BEFORE IPv4 runout occurs.
> 
> I do not believe that it is possible to hold the moral high ground
> here and on one hand tell people that they must deploy IPv6 now
> because it's the right thing to do, and on the other hand, work
> at prolonging IPv4.
> 
> When the day comes that every ISP in business can call up their
> peers and say "Turn on native IPv6 routing to us" then I think
> we can turn our attention to trying to make a supply of IPv4
> available to the little small guys who have decided to get out of
> the rat race, stay on IPv4, and just allow their ISP businesses to
> gracefully die away.
> 
> Ted
> 

-- 
John Santos
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.
781-861-0670 ext 539