IPv6 Launch Day at the ReactOS Foundation
Thursday, April 19th, 2012On the 6th of June 2012, the Internet Society has decided to start an important and world wide event: the IPv6 Launch. This means that on this days, several Internet actors (website editors, network operators, hardware ventors) will make what they own IPv6 compatible (in a transparent way!). And will ensure it will stay that way. This is not the IPv6 day.
Regarding Internet then, this is a major event. And an agreement to get IPv6 launch is a great decision. This is why we [The ReactOS Foundation] decided to associate our name to this event. This means that several of the ReactOS servers will be compatible with IPv6 (not the OS itself!). A lot of work will have to be done (even if it was already done partly previously) to ensure everything gets ready on the 6th of June. A kind of roadmap is available here: IPv6.
This actually requires work. Not only to update configurations (this could be the easier part…). The real problems come from software that don’t support IPv6 properly and that need a rewrite or even worse a full rewrite. This is what I will be working on up to the 6th of June to get everything fully functional.
As an example, in order to “help” DenyHosts (which doesn’t handle IPv6 even with custom regexp), a new tool has been developed to run nearby it. It will catch all the non-allowed connections from an IPv6 address to SSH and will drop the IP in /etc/hosts.deny. All the tools that may be developed will be dropped at GitHub under GPL licence (ForbidHostsv6 is already there, follow the link). To permit everyone to make use of them, in case they also need them for the switch.
Let’s share our knowledge about that switch, to make it as easier as possible (and the smoother possible as well!).