IPv6 support on Virgin media

[dgcarter]

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

[Paul_B]

Hi dgcarter,

  As always when new products or services become available we will let customers know. At this time we have no plans scheduled in to use ipv6.

[dgcarter]

Paul,  thanks for the reply.  Given that we are (allegedly) due to run out of IPv4 addresses at any time between two weeks last thursday and 2012, how are virgin planning on coping?

[Paul_M]

Hi dgcarter,

When the time comes for IPv6 roll out we will let everybody know on what will happen.  Until then we will be sticking with IPv4 as we have more than enough IP addresses in reserve.

By using a router will eliminate most of the issues as this will assign just one ip address per household instead of one for every device connecting to the internet.

Hope this helps

Paul

[richardacre]

Hi, whilst your statement is correct it is unhelpful. At the moment I have multiple internet facing devices behind my router. Specifically a smartphone, laptop, desktop and Wii. Most of these devices "pull" from the internet but an increasing number of home devices are "push" devices, such as the Slingbox and home CCTV systems. This is an area of growth and smart metering and white goods will be joining the fold soon enough, for example.

In order to use these "push" devices from behind an IPv4 router you have to configure port forwarding and set up and maintain your own DNS records (e.g. via DYNDNS). Something that should be simple: connecting two webcams together so you can see and chat to your distant family requires the use of a third party (i.e. Skype) to connect through, shouldnt it be easier? shouldnt we just be able to connect to each others computers directly? IPv4 and Network address translation prevent this from becomming a reality.

Once IPv6 is suitably advanced the LAN and WAN will become transparent, with a user's laptop mainitaining the same IPv6 address nomatter where it is in the world and whilst this means that the home user will need a decent firewall in place to keep out unwanted hardware it does mean that once they configure their LAN devices to talk to each other they will be able to connect to their Slingbox, turn up their thermostat, watch the CCTV and turn on the lawn sprinklers from anywhere in the world with no extra effort.

In my opinion Virgin would benefit from the positive publicity of true IPv6 adoption, where AAAA DNS records are served if available for a given domain, bearing in mind that windows XP, Vista and 7 all support IPv6 routing. The burden would still be on the home user to use a router that supported IPv6 but at the moment the only barrier to my using it is Virgin's own cable network.

[Topperfalkon]

It would be very nice to see Virgin Media offer IPv6 on its services. The sheer amount of addresses available for IPv6 will no doubt make the address blocks cheaper than IPv4 (especially due to lack of supply in the case of IPv4) and give more than enough addresses so that Virgin can give all customers static IPs and still have plenty in reserve.

At any rate, seeing as IPv4 will run out imminently (much like oil, gas, and other natural resources) it makes a lot of sense to make a switch now and be ahead of the game. Especially when Virgin has the benefit of not relying on BT's cables.

[dgcarter]

I agree entirely with you.  However, given the degree of incompetence within VM, I don't think it's going to happen.

[Topperfalkon]

I'm still reeling from their support of the Digital Economy Act as well.

You'd honestly of thought ISPs would have learnt better by now.

[shire_dweller]

While Virgin ignores their customer requests for IPv6, you can switch to ADSL2+ (BT landline) and get the best native IPv6 support in the UK with AAISP, www.AAISP.net.uk . It's been a few years that AAISP provides native IPv6. They also give you a block of static, public IPv4 addresses as standard, no extra charges. "Real Internet", as they call it. NAT is completely optional -- I strongly recommend against NAT, especially if you'd also like to try using SIP VoIP.

(I'm not in any way affiliated with AAISP, other than being one of their happy customers at work, where we get a clean 16Mbps with ADSL2+. At home I still have Virgin Media, but that's only because ADSL gives me at most 3Mbps, while Virgin gives me 10Mbps or more.)

[DJ-Shadow]

Hello

When IPV6 is rolled out accross the whole of the Internet then a lot of the ISP's will roll out IPV6, over a local network I dont really see a need as currently with BT they still have to use a Gateway from IPV6 to IPV4 due to the majority of the infrastructure on the Internet isnt IPV6.

Mike