* * * * *
                                        
             Peer-to-Peer networking was a reality, and can be yet
                                        
> I do see NAT (Network Address Translation) getting pushed further and
> further out into the cloud, which can (and does) disconnect people from
> important places like work and home. At some point the frog is going to
> roast in the boiling water.
> 
> I had a public IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) discussion in australia
> recently [1]. Click there for the full discussion. Let me reprint parts:
> 
> Two recent examples of NAT is BAD:
> 
> > 1) A friend of mine had a video monitoring system on his storefront in
> > San Juan Del Sur. He was behind quadruple NAT—his own, and the wireless
> > provider there (of the 8 or so ISP (Internet Service Provider)s there,
> > only one provides real ip addresses). His house, 1km away, had a
> > different provider, different NAT— SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
> > between the two locations never worked, he's never got a working vpn, and
> > a few other difficulties like that—but the real kicker: One day—he got
> > robbed—the perps stole everything—including some of the video monitoring
> > system—and because he couldn't monitor his site from his house 1km away,
> > he has no idea who it was.
> > 
> > 2) I was trying to get universal internet access out to 26 barrios in a
> > 40 mile wide area—so, for example, a teacher in one location could video
> > out to multiple locations—but again, due to the all the service providers
> > involved, doing NAT, proved utterly impossible.
> > 
> 
> “mirror.internode.on.net and IPv6 [2]”
> 

“DHCP, IPv4, home networks, and IPv6 … with DNS (Domain Name Service) [3]”

I agree with Mike [4] here that NAT is eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil and has damaged the
Internet (not as much as Microsoft [5] has done, granted) to the point where
it's barely a peer-to-peer network.

I do remember a time, back in the 90s, when every computer on the Internet
was a true peer of every other computer on the Internet. I wanted to
communicate with someone? My communications went from me, to my computer, to
their computer, to them. There was no third party like AOL (America OnLine)
[6] or GMail [7] arbitrating our conversation (I remember at the time, the
IRM (Information Management Resources) department at FAU (Florida Atlantic
University) [8] wanted to control all email and at an interdepartmental
meeting, about half the departments said “Hell **no!**”).

Gone are the days when I had a block of public IP addresses for my home
network (once in the 90s, and once just a few years ago [9]). Now, I have to
decide which computer gets ssh access from outside, and which gets HTTP
access.

IPv6 looks to be a solution, bringing back true peer-to-peer communications,
and the work Mike is doing [10] is inspiring me to play around with IPv6 more
than I have (which isn't all that much).

Well, that, and free porn [11] … 

[1] http://whirlpool.net.au/forum-
[2] http://whirlpool.net.au/forum-
[3] http://the-/
[4] http://the-/
[5] http://www.microsoft.com/
[6] http://www.aol.com/
[7] http://www.gmail.com/
[8] http://www.fau.edu/
[9] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/12/22.1
[10] http://the-edge.blogspot.com/search/label/ipv6
[11] http://www.ipv6porn.com/

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

.