Subj : Re: What sense is a tunnel? (was: '-Unpublished-' with speed > 300)
To : Michiel van der Vlist
From : Dan Clough
Date : Sun Nov 09 2025 09:54 am
-=> Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Dan Clough <=-
MvV>> 4) And last but not least; what happened to that pioneer spirit
MvV>> that made Fidonet sysops try out and help further develop new
MvV>> technologies?
DC> I'm really not sure that exists much any more. I do understand what
DC> you mean, and experienced it myself back in FidoNet in the 1990's.
MvV> For me it was the prime reason to get involved in IPv6. Now almost two
MvV> decades ago I became aware of the IPv4 address space being finate and
MvV> the expected depletion. I also learned about the proposed solution;
MvV> IPv6. That triggered my curiosity. I wanted to know more about it. That
MvV> in tur nbrought me in contact with SisXs and the use of tunnels. SixXs
MvV> shut down in 2017 but there is still a lot of interestung material
MvV> archived on their mo lomger maintained website: sixxs.net. Anyway, it
MvV> was the pioneer spirit that made me into a Fidonet IPv6 evangelist...
Understood, but for me, this subject doesn't "grab me" that strongly.
DC> Okay, so I can see that (running a server in an area only served by
DC> CGNAT) as being a valid reason to want/need IPv6. I guess I didn't
DC> know that kind of thing was already happening. Certainly haven't seen
DC> or heard of it being a thing where I am.
MvV> That you may not have been in contact with CGNAT may be explained by
MvV> the fact that when filling up the table of IPv4 address the US had the
MvV> advantage of first choice. Those handing out the addresses didn't
MvV> realise that four billion addresses might NOT be enough for the
MvV> foreseeable future. Complete /8 were handed out to US companies and
MvV> institutions. So in the US there usually is no shortage of IPv4
MvV> addresses. In Europe and other parts of the world most of the
MvV> incumbamts still have enough IPv4 on stock but it is different for the
MvV> newcomers. And with the fiberglass roll out there are many newcomers.
MvV> They don't have "historic" IPv4, they have to buy it on the market and
MvV> it is expensive. They need what money they have to invest in the
MvV> hardware, so many have adopted a policy of not giving their customers a
MvV> unique public IPv4 address but use CGNAT instead. Some of them (like
MvV> mine) still offer the option of getting a unique public IPv4 on request
MvV> but not all do. Hence the coming of CGNAT and the need to go IPv6.
Didn't realize some/most of that - thanks for the info.
