IPv6

[SeanCustomer]

My sense of things is that IPv6 is coming a little more rapidly than forecasted some years ago. While I'm more than sure you have begun anticipating the change, I wonder as a layman what this will mean for customers.

In addition to updating DNS entries at the registrar, what other considerations should one begin to ponder? Thanks in advance.

[AndrewT]

As far as customers are concerned, it really doesn't mean much. While IPv6 is already being used to some extent, it will still be quite a while before it really catches on. We'll be plenty ready when the time comes.

[daxm]

IPv6 Update

Any update on Dathorn's status regarding IPv6? Not that I have any customer's in India but there are some locations now that only offer IPv6 addresses.

[AndrewT]

IPv4 will be around for quite some time as the transition occurs. Adoption of IPv6, especially with mainstream ISPs, is still quite low.

Our network has (officially) supported IPv6 since January 2009. The only real remaining hurdle as far as us offering IPv6 addresses is cPanel. They're working on making it compatible and I'm sure it will be ready in plenty of time as they don't really have any choice in the matter. Nothing to worry about really.

[daxm]

All of which you say is true but I'm wanting to work with ipv6 and was wondering if I could through my domain hosted there is all.

[AndrewT]

Understood. I'm afraid that is not an option at this time. The cPanel compatibility just isn't there yet.

[daxm]

Requesting IPv6 for my domain again.

I can't believe 5 years have gone by since my last request on this topic but low and behold it has!

Can someone give me Dathorn's current status and ETA to when I can have IPv6 addressing for my hosted domain?

[AndrewT]

We have no immediate plans to offer IPv6 addresses to shared hosting clients at this time. Everything is in place to support this on our end and even cPanel now supports it quite well. There just isn't a real need to be allocating IPv6 addresses for such purposes currently.

[daxm]

I have to disagree. With ARIN now out of IPv4 space to allocate to their customers I know of at least 2 local ISPs that are out of IPv4 space. This means that their new customers will be getting IPv6 ONLY addressing! (Which means that those customers won't be able to reach IPv4 ONLY web/email/DNS/etc. servers.

Hosting with your company has been a great experience and though my "personal" website isn't going to be too affected with these IPv6 only users out there I do know that several of other websites that we administer are selling stuff and won't like it if they loose sales because of this situation. I can't in good conscience not stand up for my customers' needs (or potential pitfalls) and thus I need to stand my ground on this situation.

So, I'm strenuously requesting that you change your mind on this decision and start offering IPv6 addressing for your hosted clients (like me). :-)

If you do decide to change your mind can you provide an ETA? I understand that you can't say NOW but something like "in 90 days" is acceptable.

[AndrewT]

We have no immediate plans to offer IPv6 addresses to shared hosting clients at this time. No ISP in their right mind is going to offer IPv6 connectivity only any time soon. They may use IPv6 addresses internally but they will certainly use tunneling or some other method to offer connectivity to IPv4 addresses. IPv4 will run along side IPv6 for a very long time.

[AndrewT]

To be clear, I'm by no means saying that we won't ever offer IPv6 addresses to shared hosting clients, this will inevitably happen. We just have no immediate plans to do so at this time because the need isn't there. Even the "want" isn't there, with maybe a handful of clients having even inquired about it over the past year.

Some ISPs offer IPv6 connectivity in some form or another but they're all going to offer IPv4 connectivity along side it either via dual stack or some sort of tunnel. IPv4 isn't going away any time soon.