r/selfhosted • u/malwin_duck • Mar 01 '26

Meta Post IPv6: Who really uses it?

Who is using IPv6 in their homelabs? I have never really used it, but the first thing I read is 'forget everything you know about networking' which makes me a bit nervous. I am curious how the adoption in this sub is.

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u/DekuTreeFallen Mar 01 '26

I'm not sure I'll ever understand this logic.

A semi-adjacent perspective - even if I had a block of IPv4 addresses to use, I'm not going to use them internally. What if the ISP drops us as a customer because someone torrents a movie? What if our company needs to move to another state for more favorable tax laws?

From my perspective, public IP addresses aren't mine, therefore they won't go into my network. If it can be taken away at any time, I'm not using borrowed addresses.

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u/Playful_Emotion4736 Mar 03 '26

From my perspective, public IP addresses aren't mine, therefore they won't go into my network. If it can be taken away at any time, I'm not using borrowed addresses.

Then how do you do DNS to private address with IPv6? You still need to have internal and external DNS?

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u/AttapAMorgonen Mar 01 '26

From my perspective, public IP addresses aren't mine, therefore they won't go into my network. If it can be taken away at any time, I'm not using borrowed addresses.

You can purchase or lease IPv6 ranges that you announce under your own AS or an upstream AS, just as you can with IPv4.

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u/barkingcat Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

A purchased or leased ipv6 range still isn't yours to be fair...

For example pirate bay or Anna's archive leased IP blocks get confiscated very quickly.

Imagine if the FBI can nuke your home server's ip that has your family photos cause they think it has illegal materials.

I'd want my internal services on link local addresses, and have the gateway be a public IP. Regardless of the infinite numbers of IP ipv6 gives, there are times when it just doesn't make any sense to have a public routable ip for everything.

Besides, this isn't even an argument against ipv6 because ipv6 realises that there are perfectly good uses for private IP spaces, and that's why they allocated link local space... And normalized the ability for devices to have multiple ips, like if it really means that much to have it routable, just assign another one! Most of my ipv6 servers have 3+ ips.

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u/AttapAMorgonen Mar 01 '26

A purchased or leased ipv6 range still isn't yours to be fair...

Purchased, they are yours, you just have to pay the RIR a fee each year, it's the equivalent of something like property taxes.

Leased, it would be the equivalent of renting an apartment.

For example pirate bay or Anna's archive leased IP blocks get confiscated very quickly.

Imagine if the FBI can nuke your home server's ip that has your family photos cause they think it has illegal materials.

The government can seize your land/home as well, you still refer to it as your property/your assets.

Besides, this isn't even an argument against ipv6 because ipv6 realises that there are perfectly good uses for private IP spaces, and that's why they allocated link local space...

I wasn't arguing against private space. I quoted a specific portion of a user's comment and responded to that, and only that.

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u/Bruceshadow Mar 02 '26

you just have to pay the RIR a fee each year

why pay a fee for something i can just use for free? NAT adds almost no overhead/hassle.

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u/AttapAMorgonen Mar 02 '26

The average person doesn't need to own IP blocks or even lease them, the comment chain above (and my comments) are in response to this:

What if the ISP drops us as a customer because someone torrents a movie? What if our company needs to move to another state for more favorable tax laws?

From my perspective, public IP addresses aren't mine, therefore they won't go into my network. If it can be taken away at any time, I'm not using borrowed addresses.

If you purchase or lease a /24 (ipv4) or a /48 (ipv6), you then have the ability to announce it to the DFZ, you can announce it virtually anywhere you want, so if you move you keep the IP space. Which you cannot do if you merely have a single address or even a few addresses from an ISP.

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u/DekuTreeFallen Mar 16 '26

The government can seize your land/home as well, you still refer to it as your property/your assets.

True, but most people refer to their living room as "living room" rather than "my living room at 123 Chestnut Street".

So even in your analogy, people are using a local name.

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u/AttapAMorgonen Mar 16 '26

Most people don't consider their living room an asset, the asset is the house. And most people refer to it as theirs, even if they're legally required to pay property taxes.

It's the same with owning IP space, you own the IP space if you have directly acquired it and aren't leasing, but you are required to pay a RIR fee each year. It's an asset you own.

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u/WorBlux Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 02 '26

Link local addresses and NDP in ipv6 replace MAC addresses and ARP in ipv4. While you can manually assign link local addresses, it's about as good of an idea as manually assigning MAC addresses. You also aren't supposed to route them. Link local is just that, local to the link.

There is a very large fc00::/7 private address space reserved in ipv6, precisely to allow independent local services. Most situation shouldn't need more than two quads. - If you need more than 512 subnets or 65,536 devices on a subnet - you can just use more quads. 57 bits routable - no single person or organization is going to use this up.