This is not an IPv6 issue. Most cheap routers are garbage and cannot even handle newer IPv4 RFCs correctly. The other fault could be at your ISP. I need to ask mine for both a prefix delegation assignment and a non-temporary address assignment.
> IPv6 requires DNS, even with static prefix
False. You can statically assign whatever /64 host number you want to any interface, as many as you want per interface (for example you can bind each service you run to its own IP, to frustrate port scanning). You can use static assignment at the same time as IPv6 autoconfig, the latter is built to avoid collisions. This is a huge improvement on IPv4.
> Very few DynDNS providers supports dynamic AAAA records
So ask them. Or run your own DNS server.
> Dynamic prefix requires firewall rules to be updated when prefix changes.
That is the DHCPv6 client's job. You should be able to provide a script that the DHCPv6 client runs on server reply messages.
I am an IPv6 n00b, literally set up IPv6 on my home connection seven days ago, and have not stopped being excited about it since. No more fiddling with port forwarding garbage or configuring DHCPv4 to hand out reserved addresses for known MACs. IPv6 is an amazing improvement to IPv4 in so many ways. Wish I had taken the time to learn about IPv6 and set it up sooner.
It's not an IPv6 specification issue, correct. It is an IPv6 adoption issue. My ISP has provided IPv6 for 5 years, only last year did I get a router where it worked (apart from the other issues I've mentioned).
>> IPv6 requires DNS, even with static prefix
> False.
Of course it doesn't _technically_ require DNS, but in practice I'm not going to remember the 16 hex digits that is my prefix. And that's before SLAAC.
>> Dynamic prefix requires firewall rules to be updated when prefix changes.
> That is the DHCPv6 client's job. You should be able to provide a script that the DHCPv6 client runs on server reply messages.
Why should I have to provide a script? At most, I should be able to check a box on my router/firewall. Ideally I shouldn't have to mess with it at all.
- IPv6 ready hardware. I went through several routers (Asus and similar), and it wasn't until I ended up with pfSense that IPv6 actually worked for more than a couple of hours.
- IPv6 ready software. Some software just gets slower when it first tries IPv6, fails and falls back to IPv4 (especially noticeable browsing the web). Some software gets all confused about IPv6 being present and stops working.
- IPv6 requires DNS, even with static prefix (I have dynamic prefix). For servers, that means per-server dynamic DNS entry. Very few DynDNS providers supports dynamic AAAA records, at least when I checked last year. And getting DynDNS clients working on the servers was a nightmare.
For IPv4 I just need to keep one DNS entry up to date, with plenty of DynDNS options all around.
- Dynamic prefix requires firewall rules to be updated when prefix changes. I wasn't able to figure out how to configure this in pfSense, though I admit I had lost some motivation at this point.
As a residential user who still gets a proper IPv4 address from my ISP, IPv6 doesn't really bring that much to the table. I still have to fiddle with my router/firewall, and at this point IPv4 NAT is a lot simpler to configure (linking rules to NAT entires for example).