Calling all tunnelers...

[#1]

In the absence of much choice yet when it comes to UK ISPs offering native IPv6 service I am curious to know how many here are running tunnels in the meantime? Also, what were your motivations for doing so?
I see occasional mention of such here in the forum and wondered if, like me as a self-confessed 'techy', it was largely being done to aid your own technical understanding of IPv6 with some hands-on. And/or perhaps 'just because' you could? Or even some other reason?
I was also wondering if there is anyone out there that would like to set up a tunnel up but was a bit bewildered about what options are available and/or where to start? There might be merit in member's sharing their experiences and setups to help others climb on board. If there's a demand for it it might be worthwhile going back to basics to cover even what a tunnel even is, nevermind how to set one up...?

[#2]

Well as an IT pro (well I get paid for it, therefore I'm a pro  ;D), it was to "scratch an itch". Too much talking, not enough doing - so I signed up with HE's tunnel service and worked my way through their IPv6 Certification (I have a Sage certificate stuck up by my desk, and at my local LUG, the tee shirt was declared to be the geekiest ever seen).
So I dabbled on the IPv6 trial, and I've kept the tunnel service running, but I tend not to make use of the extra abilities offered for the simple reason that I'm not always on the other end of an IPv6 connection. But my personal main, web, and DNS is all IPv6 enabled - no cat !
At work, there doesn't seem to be any enthusiasm for IPv6, not least because I haven't yet worked out how on earth we might manage it. On the other hand, as someone who does get to "look inside" the network, I know all too well just how broken and f***ed up a NATted network is - especially when certain manufacturers (Zyxel take note) decide to add extra "f***-up measures" (randomised port translations so no NAT traversal measures like STUN can ever work) to their NAT with a "never mind that it doesn't work, it's secure" attitude.

[#3]

Quote from: MJN

I was also wondering if there is anyone out there that would like to set up a tunnel up but was a bit bewildered about what options are available and/or where to start? There might be merit in member's sharing their experiences and setups to help others climb on board. If there's a demand for it it might be worthwhile going back to basics to cover even what a tunnel even is, nevermind how to set one up...?

I would be. I registered for the HE tunnelbroker, after seeing discussion on the other thread, but promptly gave up due to a complete lack of documentation, explanation, or any decent guides and googling being of little help.

[#4]

@'DaveyH' -  I know what you mean !,
I somewhat guessed my router HE tunnelbroker configuration but fortunately it worked first time.
I then subsequently read up further on the subject and proved what I had done was correct, although more by luck than judgement.
I'm sure someone here can point you in the right direction.
What modem/router would you be using ?
It might be best if you start a new thread, so as not to clutter this one.

[#5]

I'm tunneling to a Bytemark VPS which has native IPv6. Bytemark can give you /64 for any machine and will give you a /48 on request.
I'm using my /48 to broker a /64 to my home static IP.
I'm also doing this over an IPSEC tunnel as I found 6in4 traffic limited to 256kb/s if I left it unencrypted.
VPS is running Debian, home router is running FreeBSD.
Why tunnel? Why not.
I'm also a t-shirt endowed HE Sage, my domains will all work if IPv4 implodes tomorrow, after finding a registrar who'll let me set IPv6 glue.
It just sits there on the router and in the almost 3 days since last reboot It's done:
Recv: 1.6Gb (Total IPv4/IPv6 traffic for the same period: 12.3 Gb)
Xmit: 131.0 Mb (Total IPv4/IPv6 traffic for the same period: 2.0 Gb)

[#6]

My Router offers a 6to4 tunnel (amongst other options), in the description it says "6to4 can be used via nearly every IPv4 address and requires no registration. The nearest tunnel end-point is detected automatically" so I selected that one.
I've not been using the tunnel since I found it appeared to be giving 'Junior' a nice bypass to my Open DNS layer of protection but I may well re-enable since @purleigh has kindly provided an update on the Open DNS situation.

[#7]

Quote from: purleigh

@'DaveyH' What modem/router would you be using ?

A TP-Link WDR3600, which according to their site supports IPv6 with the latest f/w
Though they also say,

Which IPv6 features are supported by TP-LINK routers?
 
The routers listed above support IPv6 features (such as DHCP, Static, PPPoE and 6to4) which are applied by Internet Service Providers. In the meantime, we are actively researching and developing more transition mechanism technologies step-by-step according to the requirements of customers.

So guessing it doesn't support 6in4, (or can i use 6to4) and will either have to flash dd-wrt/openwrt or just use my PC as the endpoint

[#8]

I've been running a HE tunnel ever since the updated firmware for the TG582N with support for IPv6 was released. Didn't have any real need to set one up but the inner geek in me had to have IPv6. Plus it was a useful learning experience.

[#9]

I'm operating a he.net tunnel on my Netgear WNDR4000 running DD-WRT. Have been doing so for a while now; I don't see any noticeable differences in latency or bandwidth compared to native IPv4.

[#10]

Quote from: Krazeh

I've been running a HE tunnel ever since the updated firmware for the TG582N with support for IPv6 was released.

Which firmware is that? I tried one or two from these parts which required the manual commands to be entered to create the tunnel but I found the router would reset several times each day. Usually ruining my online car races
I too was interested in what IPv6 was all about and wanted to learn some new stuff.

[#11]

Think I'm using 10.2.5.2. Had to set the tunnel up using the cli but not had any problems with router restarting.

[#12]

Thanks for that. Looking at my folder of downloads that's newer than anything I had tried. Round 3, ding ding

[#13]

"Calling all tunnelers..."

Tunneling is cool !