IPv6 support on Virgin media

[dgcarter]

Does anyone know whether (and if so when) Virgin plan to implement IPv6 on its network?

[tjure]

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@MUD_Wizard wrote:

All trials are registered via the Survey Monkey form here: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/News/Community-Trialists-Wanted/ba-p/3325894

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Thanks, that's a useful link!

[SlySven]

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@ravenstar68 wrote:

You don't have to do the training to get an IPv6 tunnel.

You just need to set up an account and have your router respond to ICMP pings as when you set up the tunnel HE verify the IPv4 address by pinging it.

If the router supports 6in4 then you can end the tunnel on the router.  I end mine on my Windows machine as I am still using the Hub 3 in router mode though.

If you do the training and get to Sage level, you do get a free T-Shirt from them.  It's not that hard to do either.

Tim

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Humm, well I have a Raspberry Pi which isn't doing much else at the moment so perhaps I'll set that up (I was using an old laptop as a gateway in the past for SixXS but the Pi is better suited to always-on operation - the Power Supply requirements are much less) and my through-put is not that high. I just need a good FireWall ...

[Morgaine]

And now for some good news ... 😄

Here is the latest snapshot of UK IPv6 activity as gathered by APNIC, taken from their statistics page at UK AS-numbers IPv6 usage.   Shown here are the top 3 entries ranked by their total numbers of users, which narrows it down to our "Big Three" residential ISPs:

AS-Company      Users           IPv6-Users      %-UK-IPv6
Virgin-Media    13,768,267           1,090       0.01
Sky-UK-Ltd      13,447,187      11,851,177      84.28
BT              13,194,526       1,638,118      11.65

Why good news?  Because it's the first time that I've ever seen Virgin Media's IPv6 count above 1,000 --- not exactly earthshattering news but nevertheless welcome.  It would appear that despite VM staff not responding to customer questions about it, IPv6 activity is nevertheless stirring Chez Virgin.  IPv6 trialing would be a reasonable guess.

[Morgaine]

After my happy observation on Friday 16th June above, I began taking daily readings to see if there's a clear trend in Virgin Media's IPv6 growth.  Here are Virgin's IPv6 counts from that date to the present, obtained from APNIC as described in the preceding post.

VM AS5089 IPv6 usage
1,090 - 16 Jun, Fri - as per preceding post
1,081 - 17 Jun, Sat
1,093 - 18 Jun, Sun
1,106 - 19 Jun, Mon
1,118 - 20 Jun, Tue
1,127 - 21 Jun, Wed
1,163 - 22 Jun, Thu
1,155 - 23 Jun, Fri
1,174 - 24 Jun, Sat
1,194 - 25 Jun, Sun
1,199 - 26 Jun, Mon
1,197 - 27 Jun, Tue

Clearly this is a pattern of steady growth.  It's not exactly monotonic -- on a daily scale there are occasional regressions -- but on the whole it's an undeniable upward trend with a fairly steady rate of increase.  The absolute amounts are of course very tiny compared to the 11.6 million of Sky and 1.7 million of BT, but what I'm looking for is not signs of a public IPv6 rollout in vast numbers but merely the early signs of internal employee testing or small-scale public trialing.

I think the above does confirm that things are stirring at Virgin on the IPv6 front, and whatever it is that is using IPv6, it is something with a clear growth trend.  I suspect that this means it's the result of public trialing, with new trialists still being accepted.  Alas we can only guess.

It's worth mentioning that Virgin Media is still on schedule for IPv6 deployment "by the middle of 2017" as they announced to ISPreview last November.  Perhaps we are seeing the early stages of that plan. 🙂

[cje85]

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@Morgaine wrote:

It's worth mentioning that Virgin Media is still on schedule for IPv6 deployment "by the middle of 2017" as they announced to ISPreview last November.  Perhaps we are seeing the early stages of that plan. 🙂

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Things have changed now, see this update posted last week:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/06/delayed-virgin-medias-shifting-ipv6-adoption-goalposts....

[GreenReaper]

Funny how the more things change, the more they remain the same…

[Morgaine]

Thanks for the update, @cje85.  Disappointing.

 @GreenReaper writes:

Funny how the more things change, the more they remain the same…

Indeed.  Virgin is never disappointing as long as you expect permanent disappointment.

[Sephiroth]

I have it on good authority that the end of the year is when IPv6 will be progressively rolled out (so that might mean 1Q2018). I think the timing is related to IP telephony enablement on the Hub 3. It may thus be a timing matter related to firmware scheduling - but that's my guess and not on good authority.

I'm also told that DS-Lite is not part of the plan; if true, that would avoid the problems that NAT would be at the other end of the Tunnel which can screw up local port management.

[SlySven]

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@Sephiroth wrote:
...I'm also told that DS-Lite is not part of the plan; if true, that would avoid the problems that NAT would be at the other end of the Tunnel which can screw up local port management.

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Interesting how would that work then - no IPv4 at all for adopter (naw, that wouldn't fly) - or would the IPv4 arrangement stay the same with an IPv6 subnet alongside?

[Sephiroth]

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@SlySven wrote:

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@Sephiroth wrote:
...I'm also told that DS-Lite is not part of the plan; if true, that would avoid the problems that NAT would be at the other end of the Tunnel which can screw up local port management.

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Interesting how would that work then - no IPv4 at all for adopter (naw, that wouldn't fly) - or would the IPv4 arrangement stay the same with an IPv6 subnet alongside?

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They would be coexistent.