Archive for the ‘IPv6’ Category

Today Ofcom released a report into the Implications of Carrier Network Address Translators.

One of the author’s of the report, Erion’s Dr David Holder said;

“This report is the most comprehensive analysis of the implications of Carrier Grade NAT (CGN) deployment ever carried out. The report demonstrates that CGN deployment has the potential to have a negative impact on a surprisingly widespread and disparate set of groups, consisting of users, service providers, law-enforcement and policy makers.

“One of the most interesting findings that came out of writing this report, was that all parties involved, from service providers to application providers, are reluctant to deploy CGN and emphasised that IPv6 is the only real long term solution to the IPv4 address exhaustion problem. Even more interesting, we found that large ISPs that have deployed CGN used the parallel deployment of IPv6 to mitigate some of the negative impact of CGN deployment.”

“Deploying IPv6 in parallel to CGN provides Internet users with a native IPv6 path to the Internet thereby bypassing the issues caused by CGN. The Service Providers we talked about who have deployed IPv6 to their customers have found that even today over 30% of these customer’s traffic is now native IPv6. This is an amazing figure when you consider who much of the Internet is not yet IPv6 enabled and it reflects the fact that many of the Internet’s biggest players have already deployed IPv6.”

Ofcom should be commended for commissioning and releasing this valuable resource.

Ofcom has just published a report on IPv6; MC-111 Internet Protocol Version 6 Deployment Study.

One of the author’s of the report, Erion’s Dr David Holder said;

“This important report again demonstrates the need for the UK to move faster towards the widespread deployment of IPv6. The UK is lagging behind all comparable nations in the move to IPv6. This will have an impact on the nature and quality of Internet services in the UK, which will have consequences for UK businesses and consumers alike.

“Ofcom should be commended for commissioning and publishing this report.”

For further information on IPv6 in the UK and deploying IPv6 in your environment please contact us at Erion and we could be happy to help.

On Friday 14th September, RIPE announced that it had allocated the last address blocks from its available IPv4 address pool. No more IPv4 addresses are available to be allocated under the old policies.

This is a momentous occasion for the Internet community residing in the region covered by RIPE. No longer will it be relatively easy to obtain IPv4 address space. Today the largest IPv4 address space an organisation can obtain from RIPE is a final allocation of 1024 addresses (a /22). For organisations that consume large numbers of addresses or those who wish to deploy new IPv4 based services this has very serious implications.

The solution is IPv6 with its vast address space. With IPv6 there will be no shortage of addresses. All of the problems we have in IPv4 that result from the address space limitations will cease to exist.

Unfortunately, today’s Internet is still largely based on legacy IPv4 and many services and clients are not yet IPv6 enabled. This means that there will still be a need for IPv4 connectivity for the foreseeable future. That means an on-going need for IPv4 addresses. This will impact some organisations more than others. There will be winners and losers. Those with IPv4 address space will have an advantage over those without. Those that consume few IPv4 addresses will find it easier than those in businesses that consume large volumes.

This announcement should be a call to all organisations to review their IPv6 deployment plans and to prepare for the future of an Internet based on a mix of legacy IPv4 services and IPv6 services.

Erion is pleased to announce that we are running several of our world-leading IPv6 training courses as public events in London UK during April 2012. These include our Implementing IPv6, Securing IPv6 and Introduction to IPv6 courses.

On the 16th April 2012 we are running our 1-day Introduction to IPv6 . This course is an intensive and comprehensive technical overview of IPv6.

From the 17th to the 20th April 2012 we are running our flagship 4-day Implementing IPv6 course. Developed over 13 years, this course covers all aspects of IPv6 in extensive detail and is ideal for all technical staff wishing to learn more about IPv6. This course includes practical hands-on exercises covering all aspects of IPv6. We will be running the Linux, Cisco IOS and Windows versions of this course in parallel. You have the option to chose to carry out hands-on exercises on Linux, Cisco IOS or Windows.

From the 23rd to the 15th April 2012 we are running our 3-day Securing IPv6 course. This course provides a detailed analysis of the security risks associated with the introduction and deployment of IPv6 and how you should secure your network for IPv6. This course also includes extensive hands-on practical exercises, where you are able to use a number of IPv6 vulnerability testing tools and implement a range of IPv6 security features.

Erion is the world’s leading provider of IPv6 training. We have the largest portfolio of IPv6 training courses, suitable for all audiences, covering all aspects of IPv6 on all major operating systems and platforms. Erion’s courses are certfieid by the IPv6 Forum and are part of the Erion IPv6 Certified training programme. In addition to our public IPv6 training schedule, we also provide IPv6 training as on-site courses and we provide Erion Modular IPv6 Training which allows for a bespoke training programme to be created based on our hundreds of IPv6 training modules.For further information please contact us on +44 (0)1422 207000, enquiry@erion.co.uk or through our web-site contact form.

Copyright Erion Ltd 2011, all rights reserved. Permission to publish this article unchanged is hereby given.

Erion is pleased to announce that we are running several of our world-leading IPv6 training courses as public events in London UK during October 2011. These include our Implementing IPv6, Securing IPv6 and Introduction to IPv6 courses.

From the 4th to the 7th October we are running our flagship 4-day Implementing IPv6 course. Developed over 13 years, this course covers all aspects of IPv6 in comprehensive detail and is ideal for all technical staff wishing to learn more about IPv6. This course includes extensive practical hands-on exercises. We will be running the Linux, Cisco IOS and Windows versions of this course in parallel. You have the option to chose to carry out hands-on exercises on Linux, Cisco IOS or Windows.

From the 10th to the 12th October we are running our 3-day Securing IPv6 course. This course includes a detailed analysis of the security risks associated with the introduction and deployment of the IPv6 protocol and how you should secure your network for IPv6. This course also includes extensive hands-on practical exercises, where you are able to use a number of IPv6 vulnerability testing tools and implement a range of IPv6 security features.

On the 13th October we are running our 1-day Introduction to IPv6 which is a comprehensive technical overview of IPv6.

Erion is the world’s leading provider of IPv6 training. We have the largest portfolio of IPv6 training courses, suitable for all audiences, covering all aspects of IPv6 on all major operating systems and platforms. Erion’s courses are certfieid by the IPv6 Forum and are part of the Erion IPv6 Certified training programme. In addition to our public IPv6 training schedule, we also provide IPv6 training as on-site courses and we provide Erion Modular IPv6 Training which allows for a bespoke training programme to be created based on our hundreds of IPv6 training modules.For further information please contact us on +44 (0)1422 207000, enquiry@erion.co.uk or through our web-site contact form.

Copyright Erion Ltd 2011, all rights reserved. Permission to publish this article unchanged is hereby given.

Today day is the World IPv6 day the day when many well known companies will turn on IPv6 on their web-sites and email servers for the first time.

Here at Erion, we have been running IPv6 for nearly 15 years and so we have no need to turn anything on today, it will be service as normal. For a long time we have successfully run all our Internet facing services over IPv6 and most of our internal services over IPv6. This has been a great success and we have experienced very few problems. In the main, the deployment of IPv6 was easy.

However, as the world’s leading IPv6 training company, you would expect us to get the deployment of IPv6 right.

For others it can be more challenging. It is easy to turn on IPv6 services but there are many differences between IPv4 and IPv6 that can lead to problems. Many assume that IPv6 is the same as IPv6, just with longer addresses. This is not the case. IPv6 has many differences, for example use of multicast, auto-configuration, transition mechanisms and support for new features such as mobility. In addition, the large number of Transition Mechanisms bring a great deal of additional complexity to IPv6. Therefore, when deploying IPv6 is it is important to understand the differences from IPv4 and learn the about the pitfalls and how to avoid them.

To all those who are enabling IPv6 for the first time, we wish them a successful World IPv6 day!

About Erion

Erion is the world’s leading provider of IPv6 training. We have the largest portfolio of IPv6 training courses, suitable for all audiences, covering all aspects of IPv6 on all major operating systems and platforms. In addition to our public IPv6 training schedule, we also provide IPv6 training as on-site courses and we provide Erion Modular IPv6 Training which allows for a bespoke training programme to be created based on our hundreds of IPv6 training modules.For further information please contact us on +44 (0)1422 207000, enquiry@erion.co.uk or through our web-site contact form.

Copyright Erion Ltd 2011, all rights reserved. Permission to publish this article unchanged is hereby given.

At this year’s SambaXP, Erion’s David Holder gave a comprehensive presentation on how to deploy Samba in IPv6 networks. The presentation, Deploying Samba in IPv6 Networks, covered how to configure IPv6 in a network consisting of Samba Unix/Linux servers and Windows clients/servers all running IPv6.

The presentation highlights the key differences between IPv6 and IPv4 that must be considered when deploying Windows networking using Samba. These include the correct configuration of the right kinds of IPv6 addresses, the configuraton of StateLess Address AutoConfiguration (SLAAC), the optional configuration of DHCPv6, the configuration of IPv6 enabled DNS and finally the configuration and operation of IPv6 enabled Samba.

Erion has a long history of working with Unix/Linux and Windows integration and in particular with the Samba Team on IPv6 enabling Samba. Further information can be found on our blog under Samba.

Erion is the world’s leading provider of IPv6 training. We have the largest portfolio of IPv6 training courses, suitable for all audiences, covering all aspects of IPv6 on all major operating systems and platforms. In addition to our public IPv6 training schedule, we also provide IPv6 training as on-site courses and we provide Erion Modular IPv6 Training which allows for a bespoke training programme to be created based on our hundreds of IPv6 training modules.For further information please contact us on +44 (0)1422 207000, enquiry@erion.co.uk or through our web-site contact form.

Copyright Erion Ltd 2011, all rights reserved. Permission to publish this article unchanged is hereby given.

Erion is pleased to announce that we are running some of our world-leading IPv6 training courses as public events in London UK during July 2011.

On the 4th July we are running our 1-day Introduction to IPv6 which is a comprehensive technical overview of IPv6. From the 5th to the 8th July we are running our flagship 4-day Implementing IPv6 course. Developed over 13 years, this course covers all aspects of IPv6 in comprehensive detail and is ideal for all technical staff wishing to learn more about IPv6. Delegates have the option to chose to carry out hands-on exercises on Linux, Cisco IOS or Windows.

Erion is the world’s leading provider of IPv6 training. We have the largest portfolio of IPv6 training courses, suitable for all audiences, covering all aspects of IPv6 on all major operating systems and platforms. In addition to our public IPv6 training schedule, we also provide IPv6 training as on-site courses and we provide Erion Modular IPv6 Training which allows for a bespoke training programme to be created based on our hundreds of IPv6 training modules.For further information please contact us on +44 (0)1422 207000, enquiry@erion.co.uk or through our web-site contact form.

Copyright Erion Ltd 2011, all rights reserved. Permission to publish this article unchanged is hereby given.

3rd February 2011 is the day that IANA (The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) finally assigned the last five /8 blocks (slash-eight blocks), one to each Regional Internet Registry (RIR).

Now the IPv4 Internet only has the stock of IPv4 addresses held by the regional registrars and Internet Service Provides (ISPs) to keep it going.

If you have not yet implemented or migrated to IPv6 then now is the time to do so. World-wide the move to IPv6 is rapidly gaining momentum as a result of the exhaustion of the IPv4 address pool. IPv6 is the only solution to the Internet address shortage. It is well developed and well understood. There are many good reasons to implement IPv6 and few down sides.

As a first stage in implementing IPv6, it is crucial that you train your staff. IPv6 is not simply IPv4 with longer addresses. There are many more differences between IPv6 and IPv4.

The differences do indeed start with changes to addresses, but they are not simply in the size of the addresses but also the types of addresses, their attributes and the way they are used. In addition to this, IPv6 includes many new features and makes better use of some of the features found in IPv4. For example, in IPv6 ICMPv6 is used for many critical functions. In IPv4, it is often possible to ignore ICMP, in IPv6 you cannot. This is one small example of the way in which IPv6 is different from IPv4. Others include, use of mulitcast, mobility, IPSec, QoS and the huge area of transitiom mechanisms.

So IPv6 education is critical.

Erion has been providing IPv6 services for over twelve years. As a part of this we provide the world’s most comprehensive and well-developed IPv6 training courses. Erion’s IPv6 training covers all aspects of IPv6, for all audiences, across all major platforms and operating systems. Erion’s certified IPv6 trainers and IPv6 training courses represent the best in the industry. Our customers include many of the world’s leading IT names, for example, Alcatel-Lucent, Arbor Networks, Atos Origins, BAA, BT, Cisco, Ericsson, France Telecom, HP, IBM, The International Telecommunications Union, Microsoft, Orange and Research in Motion.

For more details regarding Erion’s IPv6 training courses see http://www.ipv6training.com.

Copyright Erion Ltd 2011, all rights reserved.

IANA (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) has just allocated two /8 blocks (39 and 107) to APNIC (the regional Internet registry for Asia Pacific). The remaining five blocks will now be allocated, one per regional registrar.

This allocatation means that the pool of IPv4 addresses is effectively empty. After the allocatation of the remaining five blocks the five regional registrars (AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and RIPE NCC) will no longer be able to obtain any additional IPv4 addresses. This means that once their customers (ISPs, LIRs and large enterprises) use their remaining stock of IPv4 addresses there will be no further addresses to assign to Internet users.

The solution is IPv6. The IPv6 address space in unimaginably large and is unlikely to be exhausted for generations, if ever. IPv6 not only solves the IP address problem it also brings with it many improvements and new features that have the potential to significantly change the way we use the Internet.

If you are not already using IPv6 (and you probably have IPv6 traffic on your network even if you don’t think you have) then now is the time to begin.

Erion is the world’s leading IPv6 training organisation (http://www.erion.co.uk). We have been providing IPv6 training and IPv6 consultancy services for over twelve years. Our IPv6 training portfolio is the world’s largest, covering all aspects of IPv6 for a wide range of audiences on all major operating systems and platforms. (See http://www.ipv6training.com for further details.)

Copyright Erion Ltd 2011.