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Apple's Oh-so Quiet Implementation of IPv6
by , 3:35 PM EDT, August 20th, 2008
The modern Internet has always used the IPv4 schema for IP addresses. However, Apple is quietly using the IPv6 protocol to improve the operation and security of Back to My Mac, according to Dan Dilger at Roughly Drafted on Tuesday. More uses could be coming.
Using the pseudonym, Prince Mclean, the author looked that the use of IPv4 and NAT to solve the problem of limited addresses with IPv4 -- the Internet is running out of them.
Even so, despite government initiatives and the huge advantage of moving to IPv6, momentum on the Internet has made for slow adoption of this superior protocol, one that can provide literally billions of IP addresses fore every person on Earth.
While Apple alone cannot drive the widespread adoption of IPv6, it can utilized the advantages of IPv6 for its own products, especially since IPv6 has been built into Mac OS X since 10.3 Panther.
In Apple's Back to My Mac, Apple uses IPv6 tunneled in IPv4 using IPSec. That allows Leopard users to securely connect directly between two Macs anywhere on the Internet. One catch is that for this to work, the user's router has to support NAT-PMP, NAT "Port Mapping Protocol," a technology Apple developed and has released as an open standard, according to Mr. Dilger.
In this very illuminating article, Mr Dilger explained how Apple could invoke IPv6 for yet other products, giving Apple a chance to exercise leadership as well as silence critics that Apple is indifferent about security.
TMO notes that once Apple's competitors see that Apple is using IPv6 to its competitive advantage, the overall movement to IPv6 on the Internet will speed up dramatically -- to the benefit of all.
Observer Comments
Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:05 pm Subject: Anyone remember USB?
The number one recommendation for solving weird networking issues in MacOS X is to disable IPv6 so I really don't think Apple completely knows what it's doing.
I'm not sure I believe the article either because I'm able to use Back to My Mac even though I've disabled IPv6 on all my Macs. How can that be if it relies on IPv6?
Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:08 am Subject: Re: Funny thing
QuoteLaurieF wrote:QuoteI haven't had any problems - can you please elucidate?Bregalad wrote:
The number one recommendation for solving weird networking issues in MacOS X is to disable IPv6 so I really don't think Apple completely knows what it's doing.
Same here.. works great for me.. But most routers are NOT IPv6 compliant so it dies on the machine. I am curious why it 'causes' weird issues when it usually doesn't route.. odd. or fud.
QuoteBregalad wrote:
The number one recommendation for solving weird networking issues in MacOS X is to disable IPv6 so I really don't think Apple completely knows what it's doing.
I'm not sure I believe the article either because I'm able to use Back to My Mac even though I've disabled IPv6 on all my Macs. How can that be if it relies on IPv6?
If it is tunneled, the application can use IPv6 "riding on" v4. Hence the tunneled part.
Thinking of strategies outside the box is what makes Apple excel beyond any other tech companies' imagination. Consumers want stuff and features that they are aware of. Other companies see those wants and delivers them with padded with bells and whistles (eg HTC). Apple on the other hand mixes those wants with things that consumers do not yet know they want. Apple melds these together to provide an experience like no other and even sacrificing (to a debatable extent) some wants that they deem not necessary in order to keep the user experience at a consistent depth and richness.
Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:44 am Subject: Re: Funny thing
QuoteLaurieF wrote:QuoteI haven't had any problems - can you please elucidate?Bregalad wrote:
The number one recommendation for solving weird networking issues in MacOS X is to disable IPv6 so I really don't think Apple completely knows what it's doing.
IPv6 was known to cause problems with Qadmin for Shake in 10.4. Apple has a technote about that issue. It was also rumored to cause networking speed loss in 10.4, but was more likely because of an incompatibility with certain network hardware than a problem with IPv6 itself. Disabling it worked for some people but not for others.
QuoteBregalad wrote:
...
I'm not sure I believe the article either because I'm able to use Back to My Mac even though I've disabled IPv6 on all my Macs. How can that be if it relies on IPv6?
Did you disable it on your loopback interface also?
The traffic I'm seeing has the IPv6 FDxx: prefix, which I think is "Private Administration".
It could be the endpoint address of the tunnel is statelessly auto-configured via the loopback interface address.
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