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Apple's Oh-so Quiet Implementation of IPv6

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

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Close Name:vasic Posts: 279 Joined: 09 Aug 2005
Wed Aug 20, 2008 4:05 pm Subject: Anyone remember USB?

Ten years ago, Apple blazed the trail by elliminating serial ports and adopting USB (and Firewire). It also elliminated floppy drive. Had there not been for Apple, printers would still only have parallel ports.

Let's hope it doesn't take another ten years for IPv6 to catch on...

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Close Name:Guest
Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:18 am Subject: eliminating old technology

...unless you happen to work at a university ;-(

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Close Name:Bregalad Posts: 65 Joined: 19 Dec 2001
Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:56 am Subject: Funny thing

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?

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Close Name:Guest
Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:38 am Subject: Innovation

Apple in an innovative company beyond doubt. Hence it is not surprising, Apple sees its business advantage with IPv6 ahead of others. It is a good start.

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Close Name:LaurieF - TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3547 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:08 am Subject: Re: Funny thing

Quote
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.

I haven't had any problems - can you please elucidate?

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Close Name:UpQuark Posts: 92 Joined: 26 Aug 2001
Thu Aug 21, 2008 7:00 am Subject:

Quote
LaurieF wrote:
Quote
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.
I haven't had any problems - can you please elucidate?

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.

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Close Name:UpQuark Posts: 92 Joined: 26 Aug 2001
Thu Aug 21, 2008 7:02 am Subject:

Quote
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.

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.

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Close Name:eugenio Posts: 9 Joined: 07 Aug 2007
Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:19 am Subject: Think Different

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.

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Close Name:Guest
Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:46 am Subject:

I usually don't save or print out blog reports but this one from appleinsider really made me think and I actually printed the article. Kudos to the author and appleinsider for publishing this cogent report.

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Close Name:Intruder - TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:44 am Subject: Re: Funny thing

Quote
LaurieF wrote:
Quote
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.
I haven't had any problems - can you please elucidate?

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.

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:22 am Subject:

Quote
Bregalad 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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