IPv6 and chess software

[sje]

June 8th, 2011 is IPv6 Day when several major corporate players will spend 24 hours performing a world wide test of IPv6. IPv6 supports 128 bit long IP addresses, a big leap from the 32 bit limit we have with IPv4.

To test your IPv6 browser readiness, check out: http://test-ipv6.com/

If you write chess software that operates over the net, you should verify that your code and any libraries in use support IPv6 as the days of IPv4 are numbered. Although only about 15 percent of available IPv4 addresses are actually in use, it has proven difficult to get address hoarders to part with their stash.

Any programs that have hard-coded numeric IPv4 addresses are doomed.

[Vinvin]

...
To test your IPv6 browser readiness, check out: http://test-ipv6.com/
...

Thanks for the link. Seems OK here :

7/10 for your IPv4 stability and readiness, when publishers offer both IPv4 and IPv6
7/10 for your IPv6 stability and readiness, when publishers are forced to go IPv6 only

[rbarreira]

Any programs that have hard-coded numeric IPv4 addresses are doomed.

Doomed is a strong word...

As far as I understand it, that's not the case. They will continue to work for a very long time with the vast majority of servers, since virtually all the important servers will continue having IPv4 addresses even if they are also ready for IPv6.

[Albert Silver]

Any programs that have hard-coded numeric IPv4 addresses are doomed.

Doomed is a strong word...

As far as I understand it, that's not the case. They will continue to work for a very long time with the vast majority of servers, since virtually all the important servers will continue having IPv4 addresses even if they are also ready for IPv6.

Yes, it is not as if they6 were going to suddenly flip a switch and 99% of the world's internet users would be internetless.

I got :

10/10 for your IPv4 stability and readiness,
0/10 for your IPv6 stability and readiness

[bob]

Any programs that have hard-coded numeric IPv4 addresses are doomed.

Doomed is a strong word...

As far as I understand it, that's not the case. They will continue to work for a very long time with the vast majority of servers, since virtually all the important servers will continue having IPv4 addresses even if they are also ready for IPv6.

Yes, it is not as if they6 were going to suddenly flip a switch and 99% of the world's internet users would be internetless.

I got :

10/10 for your IPv4 stability and readiness,
0/10 for your IPv6 stability and readiness

They won't continue to work "for a very long time." They might work for another 4-5 years, maximum. ipv4 is "done" since IP addresses are no longer available and everyone is resorting to NAT to gain internet access, even though that eliminates reverse connections such as is done in standard (not passive) ftp and such...

In the US, analog TVs still work. So long as you can still find a digital-to-analog converter box. That won't be for very long... then you use digital or listen to the radio. Which is also going digital over time..

[sje]

Any programs that have hard-coded numeric IPv4 addresses are doomed.

Doomed is a strong word...

A strong word, but an accurate one.

About twenty-five years ago when Apple introduced its first laser printer, it needed a network as well so that multiple Macintosh and Apple II users could share a printer. And so was born AppleTalk (software protocol) and LocalTalk (hardware protocol). This worked for a long time until the first iMac was brought to market -- and it had no LocalTalk ports. There were work-around solutions, but the signs were clear. A few years later, Apple dropped support for AppleTalk and those who hadn't seen that coming were out of luck. Doomed.

As for chess software, will ICS and FICS work under IPv6? What about the timeseal programs? Can remote GUI clients connect in all IPv6 environment? If the answers to these questions are unknown, then that's a problem.

The last big blocks of IPv4 addresses are gone. This is now a big problem in parts of Asia where there is a tremendous demand for new addresses, so there already a significant migration to IPv6. It's just that we haven't seen it all that much in the West -- yet.

[rbarreira]

As for chess software, will ICS and FICS work under IPv6? What about the timeseal programs? Can remote GUI clients connect in all IPv6 environment? If the answers to these questions are unknown, then that's a problem.

You didn't understand the point of my post. Existing versions with any hardcoded IPv4 stuff will continue to work as long as the servers they connect to have an IPv4 address. There is no reason to believe that existing servers like FICS will let go their IPv4 addresses any time soon, if ever.

What will happen is that they will eventually be forced to get an IPv6 address, and update the clients for IPv6. But un-updated clients which are IPv4-only will still be able to connect to those servers, since IPv4 and IPv6 can coexist.

[bob]

As for chess software, will ICS and FICS work under IPv6? What about the timeseal programs? Can remote GUI clients connect in all IPv6 environment? If the answers to these questions are unknown, then that's a problem.

You didn't understand the point of my post. Existing versions with any hardcoded IPv4 stuff will continue to work as long as the servers they connect to have an IPv4 address. There is no reason to believe that existing servers like FICS will let go their IPv4 addresses any time soon, if ever.

What will happen is that they will eventually be forced to get an IPv6 address, and update the clients for IPv6. But un-updated clients which are IPv4-only will still be able to connect to those servers, since IPv4 and IPv6 can coexist.

"can" but not "will". Having both is inefficient. And slow. Right now, IPV6 is problematic because not all routers/servers/etc know about IPV6 DNS lookups. You try an IPV6 lookup, wait for it to time-out, then revert back to IPV4. That's not acceptable, and won't be acceptable whenever IPV6 becomes the norm and IPV4 becomes the slow path... It _will_ go away at some point in the not-to-distant future...

[rbarreira]

As for chess software, will ICS and FICS work under IPv6? What about the timeseal programs? Can remote GUI clients connect in all IPv6 environment? If the answers to these questions are unknown, then that's a problem.

You didn't understand the point of my post. Existing versions with any hardcoded IPv4 stuff will continue to work as long as the servers they connect to have an IPv4 address. There is no reason to believe that existing servers like FICS will let go their IPv4 addresses any time soon, if ever.

What will happen is that they will eventually be forced to get an IPv6 address, and update the clients for IPv6. But un-updated clients which are IPv4-only will still be able to connect to those servers, since IPv4 and IPv6 can coexist.

"can" but not "will". Having both is inefficient. And slow. Right now, IPV6 is problematic because not all routers/servers/etc know about IPV6 DNS lookups. You try an IPV6 lookup, wait for it to time-out, then revert back to IPV4. That's not acceptable, and won't be acceptable whenever IPV6 becomes the norm and IPV4 becomes the slow path... It _will_ go away at some point in the not-to-distant future...

None of that contradicts what I said...

IPv4-only clients will never do IPv6 DNS lookups, so none of those timeouts come into play for those clients.

Servers which have both IPv4 and IPv6 do not get any faster by eliminating the IPv4 DNS record since, as you said, the IPv6 request will either happen first or not at all.

[Sven]

As for chess software, will ICS and FICS work under IPv6? What about the timeseal programs? Can remote GUI clients connect in all IPv6 environment? If the answers to these questions are unknown, then that's a problem.

You didn't understand the point of my post. Existing versions with any hardcoded IPv4 stuff will continue to work as long as the servers they connect to have an IPv4 address. There is no reason to believe that existing servers like FICS will let go their IPv4 addresses any time soon, if ever.

What will happen is that they will eventually be forced to get an IPv6 address, and update the clients for IPv6. But un-updated clients which are IPv4-only will still be able to connect to those servers, since IPv4 and IPv6 can coexist.

"can" but not "will". Having both is inefficient. And slow. Right now, IPV6 is problematic because not all routers/servers/etc know about IPV6 DNS lookups. You try an IPV6 lookup, wait for it to time-out, then revert back to IPV4. That's not acceptable, and won't be acceptable whenever IPV6 becomes the norm and IPV4 becomes the slow path... It _will_ go away at some point in the not-to-distant future...

IPV4 and IPV6 internet will coexist for a long time in my opinion. There will be a lot of users in the world who are either not willing or not able to switch to IPV6 quickly, and they will continue to get IPV4 service for many years. Services will be offered as long as they are requested, in this case. You cannot expect that IPV4 will be shut down within few years. It is clear that IPV6 is our future technology, and that this future has already begun. But the migration will take many years, not just three of four.

Think of these aspects, for instance, to understand why:
- existing application software must be modified, some must be rewritten
- existing infrastructure of providers (hardware, firewalls, traffic accounting solutions, ...) must be modified or exchanged
- millions of DSL routers in the world must be swapped
- decisions of governments about technology swap will take a long time
- lots of new problems and bugs related to IPV6 must be solved

Remember, ASCII did not go away yet after introduction of Unicode ...

Sven