Getting IPv6 in the IPv6 no-man's-land

While more and more ISPs and hosting providers start offering IPv6 subnets alongside with usual IPv4 addresses in dual-stack mode, there are still IPv4-only areas.

Luckily, the ISP providing my internet link at home, offers native IPv6 since a few weeks in some kind of beta phase for interested users. And so far I can say it works great even if the ISP provided modem/router can’t handle IPv6, so I used my Raspberry Pi as DSL modem since there is just a Linux running on it, IPv6 on the router and the LAN is no problem at all. Yay.

Anyway, there are still providers not offering IPv6 at all. But there is a cool workaround until they do (please do, it’s really time to start operating with that not so new anymore IP protocol), you can get a IPv6 tunnel for free from Sixxs.

With such a tunnel, you get an IPv6 address and optionally upon request another /64 subnet. All you have to do is to register at their website and explain what you will use it for. After approval, you just need to install a utility on your server/router named aiccu which will establish the tunnel to Sixxs over your usual IPv4 connection.

From that point, it is rather simple and not much different from having a “real” IPv6 subnet in terms of configuring it. I’d suggest to use Dnsmasq for DNS, DHCP and SLAAC, it just works.

One thing to note though not really surprisingly: IPv6 connections over Sixxs are somewhat slower than usual IPv4 connections because all packets have be sent through the (optionally encrypted) tunnel. For me it is, better a little slower IPv6 connectivity than none!

All aiccu needs is a Linux system with support for TUN/TAP devices, which even cheaper virtual servers offer.