[HN Gopher] Pollution in 1/8 (2010)
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       Pollution in 1/8 (2010)
        
       Author : vincent_s
       Score  : 74 points
       Date   : 2023-09-18 06:58 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (labs.ripe.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (labs.ripe.net)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | ceeam wrote:
       | Can we FINALLY somehow make IPv6 real? Like, don't license the
       | "Internet" providers that don't provide it?
        
         | NavinF wrote:
         | There is no licensing for internet providers and that's a good
         | thing. Most ISPs in the US already provide IPv6. 45% of users
         | access Google over IPv6 and this has been increasing linearly
         | for the last decade:
         | https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html
         | 
         | The final barrier is crappy consumer routers with terrible
         | default settings. Not much we can do but wait for these devices
         | to die because the average user won't buy a new one until that
         | happens
        
           | folkrav wrote:
           | Last I checked, most of that IPv6 traffic was mobile, and
           | most residential ISPs don't offer IPv6, or if they do in
           | areas, they don't always provide IPv6-ready equipment. We're
           | in a similar situation up here in Canada - adoption is slowly
           | trickling in through mobile networks, but many large ISPs
           | still aren't offering it.
        
           | nfriedly wrote:
           | > Most ISPs in the US already provide IPv6. 45% of users...
           | 
           | Is that distorted by cellular providers?
           | 
           | I know my wired ISP does not provide IPv6, even when I
           | explicitly asked for it. They do CGNAT for most customers and
           | assign a static IPv4 to anyone who complains (and then try to
           | start charging for it a year later).
           | 
           | The ISP at my previous home was also IPv4 only (although,
           | thankfully, no CGNAT).
        
             | bravetraveler wrote:
             | Probably a bit, though I have noticed an upward trend in v6
             | support with ISPs.
             | 
             | When I was using Spectrum, was pleased to find they had
             | (barely-passable) support, SLAAC wasn't a thing IIRC.
             | Google Fiber has done well and so did AT&T's offering
        
               | nfriedly wrote:
               | Ok, fair enough. If Spectrum and AT&T both support v6 now
               | (edit: Comcast/Xfinity too!), then that probably does
               | cover a good portion of the wired ISP market.
        
               | NavinF wrote:
               | SLAAC doesn't delegate address space. That's why ISPs use
               | DHCPv6. You can get a /60 from Comcast and a /48 from
               | many other ISPs.
        
             | StressedDev wrote:
             | Comcast / Xfinity has had IPv6 for years (probably 5-10).
        
           | kelseyfrog wrote:
           | Thank you for this.
           | 
           | There is a very strong pattern of variability[1] associated
           | with day-of-week. Namely, there is a 5.1% increase of IPv6
           | traffic on weekends.
           | 
           | This pattern isn't reflected in Cloudflare's version of this
           | chart[2]. Naturally, a curious mind asks, "Why would this be
           | so?"
           | 
           | 1. Seasonality - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonality
           | 
           | 2. https://radar.cloudflare.com/reports/ipv6
        
             | NavinF wrote:
             | Probably because ancient corporate networks are more likely
             | to lack IPv6 and people are spending more time on mobile
             | data on weekends
        
       | gbxyz wrote:
       | (2010)
        
         | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
         | Which partially explains how they managed to have a 10 Mbit
         | port at an internet exchange. Although that seems weird even
         | for 2010? I assume this would be a 100 Mbps or Gbit port
         | artificially throttled to 10 Mbps?
         | 
         | That said, 50 Mbps of traffic sounds like a non-issue for
         | someone like Cloudflare, so I'm not surprised they took the
         | prefix.
         | 
         | Edit: A post by Cloudflare (linked in another subthread here)
         | mentioned 10 Gbps of traffic at the time Cloudflare started
         | using it. Which, as it would be spread over multiple locations,
         | is probably a relatively minor annoyance.
        
           | yard2010 wrote:
           | It seems like it's MB to Mb, but still it feels like a small
           | number even in 2010 standards
        
             | quickthrower2 wrote:
             | Has to be a virtual network right? The throttle was for
             | safety not cheapness.
        
       | m-app wrote:
       | Cloudflare has even seen ERSPAN traffic coming in on 1.1.1.1 due
       | to documentation listing that IP as a default:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR4GbRMAWj8
       | 
       | TL;DW: if you need to use example IPs in your documentation, use
       | the ones listed in RFC3849 and RFC5737!
        
       | TheJoeMan wrote:
       | How do creators/maintainers of these non-renewable resources such
       | as IPv4 addresses, computer ports, wireless spectrum, etc. keep
       | making the same mistake of allocating such a high percentage of
       | the space to specific players, leaving the scraps for the most
       | numerous users? Is it just greed, or not good forward thinking?
       | 
       | We engineers have accepted the available private address space
       | <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network> but just think
       | about how intuitive it is to an outsider? We make millions of
       | people memorize 192.168.X.X to setup their home routers instead
       | of the common sense letting the millions use the 1/8 privately?
       | Just my opinion, but perhaps holding us back from IPv6 deployment
       | is UI people don't see how an ordinary user would be able to
       | remember a full "fd00::" address for day-to-day home networking
       | or typing into their iPhone.
       | 
       | I don't have as much knowledge in computer ports background
       | story, but last I checked
       | <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_TCP_and_UDP_port_numbe...>
       | it's full of defunct, barely-used single players hogging up the
       | coveted lower numbers, again leaving the millions to deal with
       | possibly stepping on others' toes by using them "unofficially"
       | and causing "pollution".
       | 
       | Last example is thinking about how many billions of wifi and
       | cellular devices are forced into the tiniest slivers of the
       | spectrum <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Uni
       | ted_S...>. The engineers working so hard to cram even more
       | signals into the 2.4GHz and 5GHz slivers need someone who is
       | going to look up and realize it's time to expand the walls of the
       | box they are trapped in. The only firm allocations should be for
       | physics constraints, such as weather radar, but also means Wifi 6
       | should be a non-start due to not penetrating concrete, one of the
       | most common materials of home construction.
       | 
       | Given these examples, the argument I'm trying to make is I find
       | it insulting to consider the fact that people used the 1/8 block
       | "pollution". It's the natural human guess at usable example
       | numbers and the like, and much in the same way that repeated
       | "human-error" in accidents is being re-argued as "engineering-
       | error", I find the misallocation of the 1/8 block to be directly
       | the fault of the RFC creators for not giving it to the people.
        
         | NavinF wrote:
         | Long term, IPv4 allocation won't matter and it's too late to
         | fix that problem
         | 
         | Port numbers are kinda obsolete on the internet since everyone
         | uses port 443 to bypass middleboxes that block all the other
         | ports in the name of "security". Hardcoding a number for each
         | protocol instead of including IP+port in DNS responses was a
         | stupid mistake
         | 
         | All consumer devices being forced to share ISM bands is BS, but
         | let's be real even if more spectrum was opened up back in the
         | 2000s, a lot of devices would still use the same range of
         | frequencies because they wanna use the same cheap ICs and
         | antennas
         | 
         | Good wifi performance requires an AP in every room. The lack of
         | 6ghz penetration is great for high-end setups because it
         | eliminates the hidden node problem
        
           | icedchai wrote:
           | "SRV" records include the port in DNS responses. They've been
           | available for almost 30 years. Unfortunately, outside of a
           | few protocols (SIP, XMPP, etc.) they never caught on.
        
         | wrs wrote:
         | Your argument is that someone should have tried to predict what
         | random numbers people who didn't read the spec would choose,
         | and reserve those? That seems...quixotic. Would you reserve
         | other numbers in this scheme, like all possible birthdays, just
         | in case?
         | 
         | I would argue that if anyone had considered the possibility of
         | people randomly choosing 1/8 addresses, the error was in
         | reserving 1/8 in the first place. This only happened because
         | there were no consequences to making up addresses.
         | 
         | BTW, 10/8 is private, and pretty easy to type.
        
       | creatonez wrote:
       | How was this eventually solved? Since this article was published,
       | Cloudflare took ownership of 1.1.1.1.
        
         | jiofj wrote:
         | There are still people who can't reach 1.1.1.1.
        
           | taneliv wrote:
           | Oh no! People from the future are using IPv6-only stack!
           | 
           | Jokes aside, where and why does this happen? Is it a genuine
           | issue for some operators to route it?
        
             | jiofj wrote:
             | I have seen some CPEs that are configured to use 1.1.1.1 as
             | part of some internal static route.
        
         | kxrm wrote:
         | Cloudflare is helping to research issues with this space, which
         | is part of why they got the allocation.
         | 
         | https://blog.cloudflare.com/fixing-reachability-to-1-1-1-1-g...
        
           | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
           | TL;DR: 10 Gbps of bad traffic at the time they took it over,
           | but the main issue seems to have been that many networks were
           | unable to reach the IP due to misconfigured equipment on the
           | route.
        
         | ggm wrote:
         | They didn't "take ownership" the range is vested with APNIC
         | labs (check the whois record) they route it with permission and
         | share data.
        
           | chtitux wrote:
           | Given the number of people now relying on Clouflare 1.1.1.1
           | to "get Internet" (ie using 1.1.1.1 as recursive name
           | server), I can't imagine APNIC deciding to stop Clouflare
           | using this range.
           | 
           | It seems "too late" to revert this decision. Otherwise people
           | will experience "Internet stopped working", blaming their
           | ISP.
           | 
           | APNIC may decide to keep a working DNS server on 1.1.1.1, but
           | ethically, routing traffic to someone else than Cloudflare is
           | not great.
        
             | j16sdiz wrote:
             | Maybe Cloudflare can return some other ranges for exchange?
             | It would be a good deal.
        
             | cornholio wrote:
             | Fixed IP addresses change and are deprecated all the time.
             | It's of zero concern to APNIC that customers of Cloudflare
             | or various ISPs can no longer access the internet because
             | they relied on a temporary IP assignment, after the service
             | was gracefully terminated and deprecated, with ample lead
             | time.
             | 
             | That being said, the use by Cloudflare is an excellent way
             | to reclaim this part of the IP space, I don't see why they
             | would terminate this collaboration.
        
             | RetroTechie wrote:
             | If just temporary assigned to Cloudflare, APNIC shouldn't
             | care if it sees a better use for the range. Supporting
             | unintended uses only encourages various types of abuse. And
             | changing DNS settings is easy enough.
             | 
             | That said, if a lot of people rely on 1.1.1.1 as DNS, it's
             | worth considering whether reassignment qualifies as
             | 'better' use of this resource. Not to mention the hassle
             | caused by making changes to popular [anything].
        
         | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
         | If the misdirected traffic was 50 Mbps, I would expect
         | Cloudflare to be able to simply ignore it. (Edit: it was 10
         | Gbps in 2018 when Cloudflare took over, which I expect to be an
         | annoyance but not a problem if spread over multiple internet
         | exchanges).
        
       | quickthrower2 wrote:
       | Insert joke about they needed Cloudflare to thwart that DDOS
       | attack.
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | "Hey Cloudflare, why did you develop all this anti-DDOS
         | software?"
         | 
         | Cloudflare: _distant stare with vietnam flashbacks_
        
           | BlueTemplar wrote:
           | > _vietnam_
           | 
           | > Only recently, in 2008, 1/8 was moved from "the IANA
           | reserved" to the "IANA unallocated" pool of addresses. In
           | January 2010 it was finally allocated to APNIC in order to be
           | distributed to Local Internet Registries in the _Asia-Pacific
           | region_.
           | 
           | :O
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-18 23:02 UTC)