Very good points. Having been in the WISP industry for more than 10 years now. I know WISPs who have thousands of customers and only 1 or 2 class C addresses. The need for public routable IP addresses is not that much of a concern for them. Plus, a good majority of WISP equipment does not support IPV6. Sure a WISP is technically an ISP but, like Faisal says, its a much different business. Justin -----Original Message----- From: Faisal Imtiaz <faisal@snappydsl.net> Reply-To: <Faisal@snappydsl.net> Date: Sunday, September 16, 2012 2:29 PM To: <nanog@nanog.org> Subject: Re: IPv6 Ignorance
Let me shed some light here..... (Being familiar with both communities... Nanog and WISP's )
WISP's are a very special breed of folks. There are a few common attributes that one has to recognize about them. 1. Most WISP's are not Technical Folks. (Most of them are Farmers or from other totally non-technical fields). 2. Most of them became operators not because they wanted to or it made business sense. but simply because there was not Service available in that area. 3. They are very hardworking, innovative group, but at the same time they are also a bit on the 'eccentric' side when comes to technology, and understanding technology. 4. Most of them have outsourced folks managing their networks. (these folks are very qualified and familiar with networking)
So, in contrast, while NANOG community is full of folks who develop / write RFC's for Global networks, WISP community is mostly Rural folks who were forced to 'piece a network' together because no-one would serve them....
Don't be alarmed by the discussion on UBNT list or any other WISP list.....Most WISP's are typically very small network operators (sub 500 subscribers, there are some large ones too but their opinions and technical understanding is very different.) and tend to setup their network the 'Easy way'.... You will find them to be about the very last folks to adapt IPv6...(to make my case and point .... A lot of them are still running Bridge Networks, and just starting to convert to Routed Networks). They are not known for Leading Edge network operators with the exception of when it comes to 'Wireless Radios'.
A lot of them are very comfortable with using Private IP's and NAT to provide service to their customers.
Worry about them .... No need. Need for Education on IPv6 ... Absolutely Yes.... We all can use as much as we can get. And, we all are also hampered by IPv6 support / or lack of it, from the equipment mfg. that we are using in our networks.
Hope this makes sense.
Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet & Telecom
On 9/16/2012 1:43 PM, Seth Mattinen wrote:
On 9/16/12 9:55 AM, Seth Mattinen wrote:
I came across these threads today; the blind ignorance towards IPv6 from some of the posters is kind of shocking. It's also pretty disappointing if these are the people providing internet access to end users. We focus our worries on the big guys like AT&T going IPv6 (which I'm sure but they're slow), but these small operators are a much bigger problem.
It was brought to my attention that the second link isn't open to the public, sorry about that, I forgot to check them in a separate browser. The attitudes are the same though.
~Seth