Bug#692465: RFA: aiccu -- SixXS Automatic IPv6 Connectivity Client Utility
Hi Jeroen,
Jeroen Massar wrote:
> >> Then finally Call Your ISP for Native IPv6.
> >
> > I already did. The answer so far was "We don't need that yet." :-(
> > They seem to think that owning enough IPv4 address suffices and maybe
> > also that there's no customer demand (yet).
>
> As your ISP apparently is UPC Cablecom,
I should have been more verbose, sorry.
Yes, at home in Zurich I have UPC (no more "Cablecom") and I'm very
well aware that UPC offers DS-Lite and tries to move more and more
users to it without even asking. They also tried that with my
connection, but it was said to have failed. (See below for some more
details.)
But in Zurich, I have choice, and our house recently got FTTH. Hence I
want to move away from UPC anyways (e.g. because they're blocking some
outgoing ports), but I haven't decided yet to which ISP offering
proper _static_ IPv6 on fiber I'll switch. Probably Fiber7 by Init7
which also already provides the SixXS PoP I'm using now, so I have an
idea of how their IPv6 connectivity is about. But iWay is also
thinking about offering static IPv6 on Fiber, so that would be another
choice.
It's though totally different at my parents' home in the countryside
in Germany.
As of now they don't even have DSL -- too far away from the telephone
switch box. We're already glad that they got UMTS instead of just GPRS
like two years ago -- but with the usual penalty that there are no
real mobile flat rates in Germany. (They are still allowed to call
mobile data connections "flat rate" even if they're throttled after
some given amount of traffic. It's different rules with landlines.
Crazy laws, that.)
But they'll get FTTH in spring, too -- unfortunately not with Open
Access like in Zurich (I've asked the mayor of their municipality as
well as the owner of the fiber about that), so they have no real
choice with the ISP for a while. The only one offering FTTH
connectivity there is Unitymedia (as carrier as well as ISP). And
despite Unitymedia also belongs to Liberty Global, they said to me
during a public question and answer table organised by the local
government that they don't offer IPv6 and don't plan to do so in the
near future either. :-(
> which is part of the European Cable Monopoly that is Liberty Global
> you should be aware that they are providing DS-Lite to all their new
> customers,
According to Unitymedia it's different there as with UPC in
Switzerland and not all local Liberty Global owned ISPs are the same.
I explicitly asked, too, if they offer DS-Lite like UPC in Switzerland
does and they denied.
So I'd actually be happy if you know more than those local
representatives of Unitymedia (and hence of Liberty Global) and that
they're actually offering IPv6 connectivity. Because in that case I
indeed would no more need any tunneled IPv6 connectivity in the near
future. (And in that case my interest in keeping aiccu properly
maintained in Debian would indeed also decline.) I though can't tell
from my own experience before spring.
> and have been silently switching every cheap account to it to all
> around Europe.
They tried that at my home in Zurich, too, but it seems to have failed
for reasons unknown to me, so they switched me back. At least that's
what I was told in an UPC shop when I fetched a new modem because the
old one broke.
> That their helpdesk does not know what they actually provide, just
> shows that you asked the wrong people.
I really hope that you're right with that point, despite you expected
me to refer to UPC in Switzerland and not to Unitymedia in Germany
there. :-)
> > Another issue is choice: At some locations, especially those with
> > fiber, you don't have a choice wrt. to ISPs, otherwise changing the
> > ISP towards one with native IPv6 connectivity is also an option.
>
> Sounds you have a monopoly problem.
Correct. At my parents home, that's the case. Hoping for the German
government (or RegTP or however that office is called now) to
recognize Unitymedia as monopolist and requiring them to provide Open
Access to their fiber. At least that's what they mentioned that they
expect to happen somewhen in the future anyways. But they won't give
access to their fiber to other companies unless the government
requires them to do so. (The mayor of my parents' municipality though
expects that this happens rather sooner than later. I actually have no
idea how often such things happen in Germany.)
> > And in general: Just one person asking doesn't make them provide IPv6
> > instantly. It needs enough people to nag them to realise the demand.
>
> How often did you really call?
"Call" as in using the telephone you mean? Never. *g* But kidding
aside. I asked twice so far:
First I asked in the chat on their website when I first heard that my
parents might get FTTH from them. But the sales rep at other end of
the line didn't even know what I was talking about and asked someone
else first -- not sure if that was just another sales guy. So the
answer there was just no-ish.
And then I asked again on the public question and answer table with
Unitymedia and the local government I mentioned before. That's where I
got a more definitive and more well founded sounding answer (i.e. the
comment with "we have enough IPv4 addresses"). I assume the latter one
had more (but probably still little) impact.
> How often did you ask your friends, family, relatives, anybody you know
> to call?
I'm not aware of anyone else having Unitymedia (former KabelBW AFAIK)
as their ISP. (Would indeed have been way easier in Zurich for me as I
know quite a lot UPC customers. But there, the problem already has
mostly faded away.)
> And 'closing down' will be sooner than you will want or expect.
Could you be a little bit more precise here? That might help "wasting"
less time, as you call it...
Regards, Axel
--
,''`. | Axel Beckert <abe@debian.org>, http://people.debian.org/~abe/
: :' : | Debian Developer, ftp.ch.debian.org Admin
`. `' | 4096R: 2517 B724 C5F6 CA99 5329 6E61 2FF9 CD59 6126 16B5
`- | 1024D: F067 EA27 26B9 C3FC 1486 202E C09E 1D89 9593 0EDE
Reply to: