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The Shœstring Foundation Weblog, Miscellaneous Byproducts
Matthias Bauer
bauerm (at) shoestringfoundation · org
reop pubkey
Vignettes by George Herriman and a small program
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Tue, 13 Feb 2018
The Shœstringfoundation has a long term project to provide a distributed (*bing*), fault-tolerant (*bing*) storage system with servers at several locations, accessible through IPv6 and TOR hidden services. Tahoe LAFS will be the storage layer, with a web frontend and SFTP for automated access and FUSE (where available).
A prototype is already running on servers in a unique local address network spread over several locations, connected by VPN tunnels.
What is missing is a stable IPv6 prefix to make the service reachable for the rest of the world. Experiences with SiXXs and german ISPs led me to the conclusion that a provider independent prefix is needed. The friendly folks at openfactory in Switzerland offered their help, for which i'm grateful.
Artificial Scarcity, version 6
Many german ISPs now “provision” their customers (i.e. practically everybody) with IPv6-connected middleboxes that translate a non-routable IPv4 net at one end to an address from a small pool of routable IPv4 addresses at the ISP. The IPv6 networking is a side-effect.
Now everybody has IPv6 connectivity, it seems. But the german ISPs don't assign static v6 prefixes, they change them periodically as they did with v4 addresses in the heydays of forced DSL disconnects.
The ISP that supplies uplink at my home has a /32 prefix. They could subnet this in 212 ways to map their routing topology and still give out 220 static prefixes to their customers. When asked nicely, they responded that they do not even consider it.
Why not? Because everybody could then run servers at home without paying extra for it, because that's what End-to-End Internet was all about. And they make sure it is not going to happen, IPv6 or not. (See also artificial scarcity)
So people run tunnels to SiXXs (of fond memory) and hurricane electric to get decent IPv6 prefixes through the already IPv6-enabled infrastructure of their providers.
Searching for ISPs around here that do hand out static prefixes was depressing. There are high-profile providers with technically excellent offers for commercial entities with a steady flow of earnings, but for a non-profit project they are way too expensive (€ 250 and more per month).