InSPire Net IPv6 Information

Introduction

InSPire Net, for the past couple of years, has been implementing and testing IPv6 on a range of its services.

At this stage, whilst we deem that our IPv6 network is not a production service, we are happy to test various IPv6 services with customers who are interested in IPv6. If you take part in this test it is important that you accept the following conditions of this test service:

  • The service will work when it works; it may be broken from time to time
  • We can only give limited support to IPv6 configuration and various problems that pop up and this support will be given by email
  • The majority of our helpdesk staff will not be able to assist with any problems caused by IPv6 and may request that you completely turn off IPv6 when diagnosing an IPv4 problem
  • Responses to IPv6 queries may take some time and there is no guarantee on how soon we will respond to queries
  • We reserve the right to shape IPv6 traffic and we may turn the service off at anytime and without warning
  • Above all, this is not a production service

    • To test our IPv6 service you will likely need some limited knowledge regarding IPv4 and IPv6 routing and networking. Examples would be:

  • Knowing what an IPv4 subnet means and knowing what a default route is used for
  • Understanding what NAT is and what limitations it causes.
  • Knowing what an IPv6 fe80:: address is used for
  • Understanding that IPv6 addresses can be displayed in a compressed form and an uncompressed form
  • Understanding that we will most likely delegate a /56 to your connection and understanding what you can do with that /56

    • If you have some experience with IPv4 networking then you will in all likelyhood pick-up most of the IPv6 methodology as you experiment with it.

    To use IPv6 you will likely need a computer that runs one of the following operating systems:

  • Windows XP SP2+, Vista, or Windows 7 (some IPv6 options are missing from Windows XP)
  • A recent copy of Mac OSX (Leopard, or Snow Leopard preferred)
  • A linux distribution from the past few years that either has IPv6 support in its kernel, or IPv6 is able to be enabled as a kernel module

    • If you want to use native IPv6 you will need a CPE that supports it and will need to use a connection method to Inspire Net that supports native IPv6.

    If you want to be part of our IPv6 trial then please contact ipv6 @ inspire.net.nz.

    PPPoE over wireless/ethernet

    We have tested native IPv6 over our PPPoE connections and it appears to work well. PPPoE is generally used to connect customers on our various post-paid wireless and ethernet networks. To test this service you will be authenticating against a seperate, non-production PPPoE service. We do not currently have any dhcpv6 support meaning that you will need to manually configure the prefix used on your LAN(s). We have tested this service with a Mikrotik CPE but believe other CPEs may support this service.

    ADSL PPPoA connections

    We have tested native IPv6 over our ADSL PPPoA connections and it appears to work well. ADSL PPPoA is used on all of our Bitstream connections. The IPv6 service operates on our existing ADSL routers and authentication servers. Dhcpv6 is supported and will allocate your dhcpv6client a IPv6 prefix delegation for use on your LAN. The service has been successfully tested on a Cisco 827 CPE and we're currently experimenting with a Dynalink ADSL CPE.

    Ethernet connections currently configured with an IPv4 address on the WAN interface

    We have tested IPv6 on this type of connection and it operates fully on our production network. Your CPE will a statically configure an IPv6 address on its WAN and LAN interfaces. We do not currently support dhcpv6. Tested CPEs are Fortigate and Netscreen/Juniper firewalls, and Mikrotik routers. Many other ethernet CPEs may work. We can also offer IPv6 BGP if you have your own IPv6 address range from APNIC or another RIR.

    DNS Servers

    We currently offer two recursive IPv6 DNS servers - 2404:1800:0:10::2 and 2404:1800::2 . All Inspire IPv4 DNS servers will happily resolve hostnames and return AAAA records when available. We do not currently operate any IPv6 authoritative DNS servers.

    Web Hosting

    We currently have two web-servers that are enabled with native IPv6. IPv6 can be turned on for websites hosted on these servers on request and we can publish AAAA records for your domain name's www records.

    Colocation

    Our colocation service supports IPv6.

    6to4 tunnels

    If you have a device/computer with a public IPv4 address we should be able to run a 6to4 connection to this device. This is generally only used when there are no native IPv6 options available to a customer.

    Inspire Net IPv6 connectivity

    We currently have native IPv6 connectivity to Vocus via FX Networks, to the Auckland Peering eXchange and the Wellington Internet Exchange.

    Services with no current IPv6 support

    All of our prepaid services (Student City, Inspire PrePay and CafeNet) do not offer IPv6 currently.

    There is no dial-up IPv6 support. We have no plans to enable this.

    We do not currently operate any IPv6 enabled mail servers but can publish IPv6 MX/AAAA records if you operate your own IPv6 enabled mail server.

    We do not publish DNS AAAA records for any production Inspire Net hostnames, e.g. www, pop3, or mail.