Jose 🇵🇸

I haven't kept up with home networking best practices. Is IPv6 common on DIY home networks nowadays or does everyone still stick with v4? Admittedly, I'm not too familiar with the ins and outs or its pitfalls.

Are there downsides to v4-only networks?

#networking #homelab #homenetwork #mikrotik #ubiquiti

May 27 at 12:48pmTusky
Show threadRyan Clough May 27

@jos_e If your provider is handing out a prefix and your gear supports it, there's basically no downside to running dual stack. The vast majority of modern devices play nicely with IPv6, which is a huge improvement over a decade ago where I occasionally had to recommend turning it off (with the biggest frown on my face).

Most of the big US ISPs are doing DHCPv6; you can probably find specific info for your provider with a quick search.

Show threadRyan Clough May 27
@jos_e Downsides to IPv4-only: I've noticed that IPv6 service endpoints tend to be more responsive, where they're offered. It sort of makes sense; these endpoints are under less demand overall.
Show threadJose 🇵🇸May 27
@CiscoJunkie thanks for the response! My ISP does hand out v6 addresses and an online tool says my Internet fully supports it. I've been using their provided gateway / router combo, but I'll likely soon switch over to a mikrotik router and bridge their hardware instead.
Now to figure out how to set that up on the mikrotik 🧐
Show threadBillMay 27

@CiscoJunkie @jos_e

> basically no downside to running dual stack.

I'd comment gently that this isn't as true as I'd like. The stacks have differences that will require handling "the same thing" twice. Firewall rules being the first thing that comes to mind.

Show threadRyan Clough May 27

@bobthcowboy @jos_e That's fair; I guess "doing security for your second stack" struck me as more of a requirement than a disadvantage, in the same way "making sure your networking gear supports IPv6" would be a requirement. 😆

Also, though, I feel like the majority of vendors out there turn on proper stateful filtering for IPv6 out of the box when v6 is turned on? I'm not regularly testing consumer gear, though.