[arin-ppml] How hard is it to transition to IPv6?

[Chris Gotstein]

Being a small ISP, i'll chime in with my thoughts on this.  We run a lot
of older equipment, most of it will not run IPv6 ever.  This goes for
all our dialup gear.  Dialup is dying a slow death.  I don't ever see
the need to convert our dialup users from IPv4.  Where i see the need in
our situation is on our high-speed customers like cable, dialup and
wireless.

We are going to start testing and doing limited deployment of IPv6 on
our routers and some office equipment (PCs, wireless APs, printers)
within the next year.  From there i would see us starting to be able to
offer IPv6 to our larger customers and maybe even pushing it out to new
sites that we deploy.  At this time, i don't see a need convert
everything over to IPv6.  But our goal would be to use IPv6 on any new
deployments that come up and for customers that are requesting it.

It's great to see the big guys doing this transition.  I think the next
logical step is for the small ISPs, like myself, to start the
transition.  We typically have a lot less equipment to deal with and can
be flexible in dealing with any conversion situations that come up.

Chris Gotstein
Sr Network Engineer
UP Logon/Computer Connection UP
500 N Stephenson Ave
Iron Mountain, MI 49801
Phone: 906-774-4847
Fax: 906-774-0335
chris at uplogon.com

Scott Helms wrote:
> Antonio,
> 
>     I'm frankly not that concerned about the pieces that I control, its 
> the hundreds of thousands of end user devices that I don't.  In addition 
> there are lot of pieces of gear that ISPs do control that don't have an 
> upgrade path either because the vendor doesn't exist or the vendor 
> decided to end of life the product.  I can tell you that most of the 
> smaller ISPs still providing dial up, and yes there is still a ton of it 
> out there, are doing it on old gear (much/most of that being Portmaster 
> 3s).  It's not that there isn't a solution, but it will be expensive and 
> complicated and again that is before we include the issues with end user 
> equipment.
> 
> Antonio Querubin wrote:
>> On Fri, 27 Mar 2009, Scott Helms wrote:
>>
>>>    I wish I were as optimistic as you, and my view is based on testing
>>> in our environment.  While it will be fairly easy for some kinds of
>>> companies this is going to be a total nightmare for ISP's.  It's pain
>>> that has to borne, but that doesn't make it easy to swallow.
>> I don't think it's that extreme for ISPs.  As with any major 
>> undertaking, it's best done by breaking the task up into small 
>> manageable pieces.  It will take time, but it's nowhere near as 
>> difficult as some say.  The key for us has been to integrate the 
>> necessary changes into normal equipment, infrastructure, and 
>> software/application update plans.  We started messing with IPv6 years 
>> ago, we're still not completely done yet, and some parts of our 
>> infrastructure and services may never be IPv6 ready.  But having 
>> started the transition process early means we're better prepared to 
>> handle any future customer requirements.
>>
>> Antonio Querubin
>> whois:  AQ7-ARIN
>>
>>
> 
>