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SixXS will be sunset in H1 2017. All services will be turned down on 2017-06-06, after which the SixXS project will be retired. Users will no longer be able to use their IPv6 tunnels or subnets after this date, and are required to obtain IPv6 connectivity elsewhere, primarily with their Internet service provider.
SixXS (Six Access) is a free, non-profit, non-cost service for Local Internet Registries (LIR's) and endusers. The main target is to create a common portal to help company engineers find their way with IPv6 networks deploying IPv6 to their customers in a rapid and controllable fashion. To reach these targets we are providing a whitelabel IPv6 Tunnel Broker and Ghost Route Hunter, an IPv6 route monitoring tool and various other services to help out where needed.
Their reasoning to finally do this is:
Building up to our conclusion, we make some critical observations:
- SixXS penetration has hit a point of diminishing returns (see the 'Growth' subsection of this document).
- Content providers have shown great progress in enabling users to reach their websites via IPv6, in our opinion formally breaking the chicken and egg problem.
- Access providers have shown reasonable interest in providing IPv6 to users, but some have started to quote SixXS as a reason they do not have to show an interest.
- Consumers should not have to be involved in the discussion as they largely need not know, or care, how the Internet works, as long as they can reach the Internet resources they want, when they want them.
Our conclusion is that SixXS is no longer able to contribute to the solution, and is hampering its own goals of facilitating the migration of consumers to native IPv6. We have therefore decided to shut down our services on 2017-06-06.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Sunday March 26 2017, @12:48PM (3 children)
I get services from 7 different ISPs - one stands out for not providing IPv6. It happens to be the most recently established, rolling out fibre-based connections. Their website used to say IPv6 would be rolled out next year. Meaning 2015. They actually rolled out Carrier Grade NAT in late 2016, which killed all my VPNs to one site. They still have no firm roll-out dates for IPv6, and their automated systems have twice moved me from my hard fought for static IPv4 address* back to CGN with no notice.
Full adoption of IPv6 is (still) going to take a while.
That said, I'm not saying SixXS shouldn't do this: it just means people like me are going to experience a slightly painful transition. I would move from the ISP in question in a heartbeat if there was a viable alternative, but there is very little competition in fibre-based services for SOHO-type connectivity where I need it. [Ensuring a competitive choice of ISPs is available to all potential customers of a particular service-type is an unsolved problem generally, as far as I can see, and I'm sure doctoral theses have been written on this very problem.]
*Yes, I know dynamic DNS is my friend. I happened to like being able to operate without being reliant on somebody-elses's nameserver.
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Sunday March 26 2017, @06:08PM (1 child)
[Ensuring a competitive choice of ISPs is available to all potential customers of a particular service-type is an unsolved problem generally, as far as I can see, ...]
Actually, in the Netherlands cables were put in the ground a long time ago by the state telco. When that telco was privatized, laws were enacted that force it to share its connections.
The result: just about every house in the Netherlands has a phone connection coming in. Virtually everywhere, there are at least 3 companies that can deliver broadband over that. It works reasonably well - usually for about 25-30 euro you get 10 Mbit up / 30 Mbit down connection (you can't really get less speed than that nowadays).
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Sunday March 26 2017, @09:13PM
What you say is true for many countries: the (old) copper infrastructure is well shared - the issue I have is the availability of fibre-based services that can deliver symmetrical Gigabit capacities. There is no universal service obligation to deliver fibre to everywhere - even the much-vaunted Finnish Universal Service Obligation isn't quite what it seems - read the details in this old article https://arstechnica.com/business/2012/10/finland-plan-for-universal-100mbps-service-by-2015-on-track/ [arstechnica.com]
The problem is, the old copper infrastructure can't support Gigabit capacities, and governments are not willing to pay to provide fibre everywhere to facilitate competition in delivering services over a common/shared physical optical fibre infrastructure*. So you end up with a fragmented patchwork of local monopolies delivering services to the highest density developments, with unserviced wastelands in-between.
Perhaps there should be a mandate that any new provision of a utility service (electricity, sewerage, water, gas) to a location is accompanied by fibre, financed by a fixed levy spread across all new installations. The marginal costs would then be minimised, and you would get a gradual roll-out of infrastructure as services are renewed - much like the criticised 'smart' electricity meter roll-out.
*And, indeed, some places are removing the old copper infrastructure as it is no longer economically maintainable. Telenor Norway was doing this, and replacing fixed-line phones with static mobile phones, and in 2012 predicted they would turn off the copper telephony network. That decision was changed in 2015 , but shows which way the wind is blowing.
(Score: 2) by ticho on Monday March 27 2017, @05:39AM
A competitive choice of ISPs doesn't do anything in this regard, if none of the several available ISPs offer IPv6. That is the case for way too many people considering it's year 2017.