[OSM-talk] AAAA openstreetmap still doesn't use ipv6

[Tom Hughes]

Thomas Schäfer wrote:

> sorry the theme is for the most of the people off topic. They use the 
> application "osm" via "internet". But the fundament of the internet (its 
> protocol) is changing.

We (the admins) are all well aware of this. I personally have had IPv6 
on my home network for some years now.

> Therefore my appeal: Ask your next admin/provider for ipv6 , make a plan and 
> make the network working, add the AAAA to dns an be happy. Solve the "little" 
> problems .

There are reasons why this is not as simple as it sounds. I know that 
sounds a bit cryptic but please believe me when I say it is complicated.

> google is one jump ahead (in selected networks):
> 
> maps.google.com is an alias for maps.l.google.com.
> maps.l.google.com has IPv6 address 2001:4860:a003::68

There is a reason they only do it for selected networks (and believe me 
when I say that getting on the list is hard even if you want to). The 
main reason is that something like 0.1% of people on the internet at 
large will find themselves unable to connect at all if you just add an 
AAAA record globally at the present time. Those number's are from the 
research Google conducted by running an experiment on their home page:

http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/08nov/slides/v6ops-4.pdf

The simple summary is that while we would be perfectly happy to add some 
sort of IPv6 support if we could it just isn't possible right now.

That is all I am going to say about it, so please don't bother ranting 
back at me.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://www.compton.nu/