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IPv6 support on Virgin media

dgcarter
Dialled in

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

1,493 REPLIES 1,493

TonyHoyle
On our wavelength

Presumably you're seeing router advertisements as others have.  I've never seen those (it seems to be regional) so never been able to try any connectivity.  The default route would be the link local that those come from.

You could try sending a ping to ff02::2 over that interface and see what replies.

Hi all,

As far as I was aware, Virgin Media Ireland have had IPv6 in some form (DS-Lite IPv6 perhaps) for a couple of years or more as I recall getting my brother to check his IP address last year and it showed both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address. However, I'm currently in Dublin on the VM network and it is only showing an IPv4 address.

I'm wondering now if he was connected to his work network via VPN at the time that he reported his IP or perhaps on his mobile and not connected to the home Wi-Fi. 🤔

Can anyone confirm whether VM Ireland have implemented some form of IPv6 at some point but may have removed it now?

Regards

Félim
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK


@Felim_Doyle wrote:

Hi all,

As far as I was aware, Virgin Media Ireland have had IPv6 in some form (DS-Lite IPv6 perhaps) for a couple of years or more as I recall getting my brother to check his IP address last year and it showed both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address. However, I'm currently in Dublin on the VM network and it is only showing an IPv4 address.

I'm wondering now if he was connected to his work network via VPN at the time that he reported his IP or perhaps on his mobile and not connected to the home Wi-Fi. 🤔

Can anyone confirm whether VM Ireland have implemented some form of IPv6 at some point but may have removed it now?

Regards


It should have IPv6 via DS-Lite.  It can be turned off if you want/need to avoid CGN IPv4.

I am assuming your on a old UPC connection.  I think their systems are different than the UK (leaning much more into what UPC does globablly via Liberty Global).

----
I do not work for VM, but I would. It is just a Job.
Most things I say I make up and sometimes it's useful, don't be mean if it's wrong.
I would also make websites for them, because the job never seems to require the website to work.

Thinking about it.

Are you using the ISP supplied Modem/Router as your Router, or do you have a stand-alone router with the Modem/Router in Modem-Only mode?

----
I do not work for VM, but I would. It is just a Job.
Most things I say I make up and sometimes it's useful, don't be mean if it's wrong.
I would also make websites for them, because the job never seems to require the website to work.

I'm not seeing this either. I've got a simple bridge rule for all IPv6 frames and I can't solicit any RA from any device. Either it isn't everywhere, or else it is strongly filtered in the fashion of DHCPv4 to the first and I haven't noticed. Oh, well. Hopefully someone else will enjoy better luck. I'll leave the bridge there, in case something interesting happens. 

If I enable IPv6 on the WAN connection of my security gateway then I do see the RAs, but since everything else is currently missing I haven't bothered to try to make anything work. My HE 6in4 tunnel works very well and I get almost native speed from it, so I'm going to stick with that until/if VM properly deploys IPv6. Since I am constrained to using modem mode I do hope that when/if they do roll it out they don't deploy DS Lite or any such nonsense.

Fair enough.

FWIW my RAX200, used as a WAP, does have DS-Lite (and MAP-E, and others). While I certainly empathise with wanting the very best, it's possible that your choice of box may have (or can have added) DS-Lite support. I'm personally less agitated by the idea of going behind a V4 NAT, but that's probably just me. 

Honestly i think it should be an option, by default you get CGNAT with DS-Lite but you can request to get full dual stack V4 and V6 as for me i need to have a public V4 address for mainly plex along with other things i port forward but most user's wouldnt need to do that, im just a nerd lmao. I know there's some ISPs that have default DS-Lite and have the option to go full dual stack

Honestly, you aren't missing much if you don't see Router Advertisements on the WAN side, based on what is known it's been lurking for a while and you don't have any real ability to use it properly. You can technically assign yourself an IPv6 address within the routed prefix you see (not the managed network one), but honesty it's not really useful, it works but you literally just have a single IPv6 address, no prefix delegation through DHCPv6 etc, it's not really meant to be used. You could go really creative and start trying to essentially force the prefix to be announced with your own stuff, but realistically, it's not meant to be used so there's really no point. The only real interesting point is there is in fact a working IPv6 network "live" in some places, but again totally useless for using it practically really, but one of those "cool, I did a thing" scenarios.

It is quite possible what is visible is part of the DS-Lite implementation, which goes back to 2018.

From conversations back in 2020, it suggested that Liberty Global had basically got an IPv6 network ready and the evidence that's currently live on the WAN side suggests it might still be silently running in the background but even they had issues convincing people (likely higher management and numbers people) within Virgin Media to allow them to deploy it and it seems that still may be the case. So when Liberty Global network engineers can't get sign off to turn it on, there's really no hope for customers having a voice on it, but we carry on trying anyway.

I'd hope due to the lengthy delay and no change since the 2018 DS Lite trials they are at least considering or have tested other options outside of it. Maybe DS-Lite flagged various issues that made them rethink, dual stack seems safer overall despite maintaining two protocols, if the service doesn't support IPv6, it will just use IPv4, if the service supports IPv6, it will use IPv6, great. Given Virgin Media has been on legacy IPv4 ages, maybe users were tied to IPv4 port forwarding (which is possible with the provided CPEs) so they decided not to, complete speculation of course, but you'd think with evidence of an IPv6 network present, it would of been turned on by now, given it's now been 4 years since the IPv6 trials.

Ireland is under the DS Lite by default configuration (certainly for new customers, but older many not have it), however there's a couple of important differences compared to the UK

1. The Ireland operation was formerly UPC before Virgin Media
2. The network from the merger is likely different
3. The network is significantly smaller than the customer base of the UK and therefore would perhaps have more issues with IPv4 exhaustion. You can however go back to IPv4 only, so clearly there is some IPv4 space, but perhaps not enough to cover every single customer in Ireland.

The other alternative is a proper dual stack deployment moves to VM Business and DS-Lite goes to residential. That would be acceptable for power users or enthusiasts, it would allow consistency of deployments across both types and if someone really hated that, they could just stay in IPv4 only mode or change provider if it's really not workable (if you have Openreach or an alt net available in your area of course). DS Lite likely works fine in most casual uses, but those that know or have more demanding needs it's just hassle waiting to happen.

I think VM/ Liberty Global actually listened. DS Lite is the worse of all options and walked away before customers did.

A true dual stack or V4 only and continued use of a HE tunnel. 

Many of my remote PoPs are Ipv4 and then RFC1914 with NAT.  CGNAT will always be a game ender

 

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