jonathanm
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Re: IPv6 support on Virgin media
@VMCopperUser, indeed, my point exactly. The rough evidence/anecdotes as I've seen it so far (as reported by users or through news articles, and I may have missed some): There have been no reported issues with 6in4 from Hub 4 users (I think?) Hub 3 users have reported sporadic successes achieving their connection speed (or near enough), with a range of 12Mbps, 20Mbps and full speed (sometimes). Other network/switch issues have not been ruled out. Having been a software/hardware tester something slightly nonstandard (or should I say non-typical) is likely not the most throughly tested and cannot be assumed to be trivial for the components handling it (whatever/where ever in the path they are) The Hub 3 has had problems and VM are, reportedly, offering users Hub 4's for free in some areas even if not on the Gigabit package. In short, we don't really know. Personally, there's enough going on in the world, work & personal projects, that testing 6in4 is not something I currently care enough about to add (plus I can only control my local network variables and can only test CPU utilisation by seeing whether it gets hotter than it already does :-D) ... Testing with a "proper" v6 implementation is something different I'd be happy to do however, for which I hope VM engineers are working on making it so 🙂2.4KViews0likes2CommentsRe: IPv6 support on Virgin media
I'm not wanting to be argumentative, nor completely agree/disagree with each of the assertions, however there are accepted flaws in the Intel Puma 6 CPU. Just look at the US class action lawsuit on the matter (e.g. Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe Puma 6 Chipset Defect). When there is such an issue that affects a hardware platform, and in this case I would call it random, for the processing of packet data then all bets are off for other data types that are not well knows and processed through a hardware path. All other packets regardless of router or modem mode will traverse through the CPU. In Linux, when the in bridge mode the packets still use the kernel and thus the Puma CPU. This bit is speculation, but given the GUI is still accessible, the Hub 3 is running other applications which will take resource from the CPU at some level - and in an already constrained system could cause issues regardless of mode. I'm not a HFC expert, but as I understand from reading each consumer segment (CPE) also receives each of the packets (e.g. for neighbours) and filters them, not to mention the variation of local network traffic requiring WAN access that can affect any individual setup. I also suspect there will be varying E2E network "issues" (e.g. network QoS or DPI or switch implementations) as well as those established and there may even be better binned versions of the Puma 6 (pure luck) that perform better. The only real way to prove the Hub 3 is the root cause, rather than just another part of the problem is via a standalone test configuration in a lab environment (and that's unlikely to happen), running with a varying degree of local network scenarios. Disclaimer: I'm not running 6in4, just interested in the progress (or lack of) IPv6 on Virgin Media's network.2.8KViews1like7CommentsRe: IPv6 support on Virgin media
Pretty much all of the main consumer "IoT" devices will register with a server (more likely a set of services running in someones cloud that can handle load balancing for you). I don't think this will change whether running on IPv4 or IPv6, primarilary because it makes it easy for device supplier to provide a consistent experience for non-technical and technical users alike (most don't care about the specifics they just want it to work when the open the app on their phone!). This probably covers off the most common [IoT] devices that most people will come across. Very simply, other categories might be industrial (sensors, etc.) and enthusiast (who will know what they are doing, but in terms of numbers I guess will be a minority). For machine to machine there has to be some form of discover, I'd expect this to be over local networks rather than just directly to the internet, otherwise they will probably need to register themselves. Directly addressable devices will exist, but how are they discovered? You either need DNS or to know the v6 address (not likely), and as already mentioned here that DNS would need to be registered for direct connectivity. I can see an application for this, but for most consumer routers the firewall blocks incoming connections as this is best practice so like with IPv4 and port forwarding, you will likely have to configure IPv6 pinholes on the router or turn off the firewall. Since we are talking about consumer services with VM (and since this is the same on newer BT HomeHub routers which are already IPv6), I don't see that VM would change the default router configurations from manufacturers to make them less secure? Just my 2p.3.7KViews0likes0CommentsRe: IPv6 support on Virgin media
As far as I remember mobile network providers are using GC-NAT (at the APN) to serve all of their customers so I imagine scaling has been long solved in one way or another. However, I'm also guessing that some of the issues that have been mentioned also perhaps aren't so prevalent as I doubt there are a significant number of people that would choose to regularly game or provide hosting, etc. over a mobile network connection in preference to a fixed line broadband connection. IPv6 solves the problem for mobile provider (or users) as they could then, in theory, provide a unique v6 address per connected device, compared to NAT'd v4.2KViews0likes0Comments