In a post to the NZNOG mailing list, NZRS Chief Executive Jay Daley says that there is “new firmware on the boxes that fixes previous IPv6 issues”. ntp1.ntp.net.nz and ntp3 are now accessible over IPv6, albeit ntp2 has a minor provider-related IPv6 issue awaiting remedy.
Daley says NZRS is considering adding one more server to the NTP network and is researching a number of of kit possibilities.
Feedback on NZRS’ NTP service is welcome at anytime and can be emailed direct to Jay Daley at [email protected].
More information on NZRS’ NTP server network can be read online at http://ntp.net.nz.
]]>In a post to the NZNOG mailing list, a CityLink representative says all five of the New Zealand peering points operated by Citylink are now dual-stacked.
Those wanting to add IPv6 peering are asked to contact CityLink at peering@citylink.co.nz.
More information about the IPv6 capability of New Zealand’s Internet exchanges is available at http://nzix.net/peers.html.
]]>17 September 2012
The Ministry of Health is one of the first government agencies to have enabled access to its websites via IPv6.
Internet growth has meant that the 4.3 billion available IPv4 internet addresses – a requirement for anyone using any means like computers or mobile phones to connect to the Internet – has run out and a new address system, called IPv6, is now being increasingly used.
The Ministry of Health has enabled its core website www.health.govt.nz to be accessible via the new internet address system.
Ministry of Health’s Deputy Director-General of Health, Barbara Phillips, says websites are a key way to provide health and disability information and access to services for all New Zealanders. Up to 130,000 people now visit the Ministry website each month.
Ms Phillips says keeping our websites and their infrastructure up to date is vital in today’s work environment.
The Minstry’s move has been recognised by the New Zealand IPv6 Task Force, an industry-led body set up to encourage government agencies and other organisations to become IPv6 accessible.
IPv6 Taskforce Convenor Dr Murray Milner says, ‘Having more agencies able to operate within IPv6 is important as it means that Government is playing their part in upgrading the infrastructure around web services in New Zealand. It’s a good demonstration of ‘Better Public Services’ in action.’
A list of New Zealand government websites tested as IPv6 accessible can be found at www.ipv6.govt.nz/govt-ipv6-site
]]>Details below:
Ministry of Defence
www.defence.govt.nz
2402:6000:200:100::10
Ministry of Primary Industries
www.maf.govt.nz / www.mpi.govt.nz
2406:9a00:0:100:203:144:39:73
Ministry of Social Development
www.childrensactionplan.govt.nz
2a00:1450:4001:c01::79
New Zealand’s Research and Education Advanced Network (REANNZ) was one of this country’s earliest adopters of IPv6, having implemented the protocol on its national backbone, dubbed KAREN, in 2006. By the following year the organisation had gone a step further, deploying internally on its office network, DNS, and video-conferencing system.
The Crown-owned company’s internal transition to IPv6 went off without a hitch. Network Operations Specialist David Brownlie says, for some staff, the address schema took a little getting used to, but turning it on involved a mere four lines of code!
REANNZ is well and truly living IPv6. This way of life even extends to its in-house skills – not only are its network personnel fully-schooled in IPv6, the organisation recently hired a Computer Science graduate who is au-fait with IPv6, having been exposed to the protocol in every year of his course.
Brownlie notes that there can be a degree of tension between IT decision-makers who were brought up in the IPv4 world and those such as REANNZ’s new graduate living in an all-fibre IPv6 world. But, as time goes by, more network professionals, vendors and application developers are becoming familiar with the new protocol. It is then, he says, that adoption will really start ramping up.
More generally, IPv6 is not, nor has it ever been, an option. “Emerging economies in Asia are committing to widespread IPv6 adoption. Given the importance of trade links with the East, New Zealand organisations must follow suit,” says Brownlie.
REANNZ holds a significant amount of IPv6 address space, with two blocks of /32 – one for New Zealand’s research and tertiary education community and one for schools. Address space is provided free to members on sign-up.
The company has about 150 members. Only a dozen of these have deployed IPv6 in any meaningful way – the leaders tend to be large universities and Crown Research Institutes dealing with business partners in Asia.
While REANNZ doesn’t officially provide IPv6 advice as a member service, it assists where possible, and extols the virtues of IPv6 at every turn. But ultimately, says Brownlie, decisions need to be made internally by each member about what is best for their own organisation.
“It is important to align technology objectives with company objectives. In our experience, those of our members who have been early IPv6 adopters have been those with clear thinking about what they’re in the world to do.”
Much of the teeth-gnashing around IPv6 adoption comes down to persuasiveness of business case and cost. “It can be difficult to get big projects signed off unless there is large return on investment. And, what IPv6 adoption amounts to is a substitution of one functioning protocol with another. IPv4 already works, so, for many organisations, it is easy to mask the problem.”
Expense is another hurdle. Some REANNZ members have baulked when seeing the cost involved in wholesale IPv6 adoption. There is large value attached to firewalls, for instance. Many aren’t IPv6-ready and there is significant money involved in switching them out.
Brownlie suggests IPv6-enabling external applications initially and encourages organisations to experiment with the protocol. “At the moment, given the low level of IPv6 uptake, it’s a unique opportunity to multi-home with IPv4 and IPv6 and find out which applications will support IPv6 and which won’t.”
Make no mistake, the IPv4 protocol is nearly 50 years old and is starting to creak. “It’s an anomaly of the technology world that IPv4 has been used for so long. The entire ICT industry is geared towards adopting new technologies, yet we’ve coped for decades with the ancient way of addressing,” he says.
For more information about REANNZ’s IPv6 activity, including practical technical advice, visit: www.wiki.karen.net.nz/index.php/IPv6
]]>Snap Internet Media Release – 26 August 2011
All Snap Internet customers now have native IPv6 connectivity for no additional cost to safeguard them from the threat of IPv4 address exhaustion.
As of this year, no more IPv4 addresses can be allocated from network registries. The numbers of IPv4 addresses available for customers are dwindling and will become costlier as a result.
While other ISPs talk about putting in the new Internet addressing protocol IPv6 Snap has already moved to ensure future connectivity for customers.
Starting this August, Snap’s network is fully IPv6 enabled for all customers. The IPv6 service will run alongside Snap’s normal IPv4 connectivity.
All you need to do is to upgrade to a DSL or other router that’s IPv6 capable and configured properly, and you can start accessing the Internet with the new address protocol. Snap will initially be offering support for IPv6 via email, but will extend this to phone support later this year (Please note that if router configuration and IPv6 troubleshooting is needed, it will be handled by Snap’s Tier 2 Technical Specialists which may be charged)
Mark Petrie SNAP COO says: “We have been preparing for IPv4 addresses to run out for the past four years, and wanted to ensure that our customers can continue using the Internet without interruption, or further costs. This is hugely important, especially for business customers depending on the Internet.”
As most residential routers presently don’t support IPv6, in a further move to ensure easy migration to the new protocol, Snap will be selling AVM Fritz! Boxes from September. These are fully enabled for IPv6, and pre-configured by Snap.
Commercial customers can get support from Snap too, for help with migrating to the new protocol from Snap’s IPv6 trained staff.
Globally, everyone is getting ready for IPv6 and so should you. Already, many sites on the Internet are fully IPv6 enabled such as Google. In June this year, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other Internet giants held the World IPv6 Day to kick off uptake of the new protocol, and to test it around the world.
Petrie says “All new operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X and iOS, and Linux are ready to run IPv6 too. “
Moving to IPv6 means each device can reach others directly on the Internet – this is called the end-to-end principle, and it ensures the best network performance possible, with the least complexity.
Already, the lack of IPv4 addresses has led to extensive use of measures such as Network Address Translation or NAT. However, NAT which uses addresses that cannot be found directly on the Internet breaks the important end-to-end principle and adds complexity, especially for large networks. It may also cause performance issues.
Snap DSL plans for residential users start at $75 a month with broadband and phone, with more available.
To test if you’re connected with IPv6, go to http://test-ipv6.com.
]]>The updated list includes the Tauranga City Council site and some other websites maintained by the City Council, including City on it’s Feet, Baycourt Community and Arts Centre and Historic Village on 17th.
The DIA says “many other linked Tauranga City Council web sites are also IPv6 accessible”.
If you are a New Zealand government agency and wish to have a link to your IPv6 website added to the DIA’s list, get in touch at www.ipv6.govt.nz/contact-us
]]>Old switches nearing the end of their life are being replaced with equipment from Extreme Networks offering full support for IPV6. Some internal networks across the organisation have been enabled for IPv6. Dual-stack technology is being used to enable both IPV4 and IPV6 use.
A number of internal servers and client devices are now communicating via IPv6 in preference to IPv4. TCC has also setup a teredo relay and 6to4 relay to ensure users using these two transition technologies are well served when accessing TCC IPV6 addresses. A fully deployed IPv6 solution is expected to be complete, across all TCC networks, by Feb 2012.
]]>Wellington-based Internet Service Provider DTS has announced it is natively IPv6-capable (internationally). DTS made the announcement this morning on Twitter:
DTS has also adopted IPv6 on its critical internet facing systems including core, border, and edge routers, DNS, mail and web systems.
]]>New Zealand’s Ministry for Culture & Heritage has dual-stacked several of its websites, including:
A full list of New Zealand Government websites with a quad A record is available at www.ipv6.govt.nz/govt-ipv6-sites
]]>