Plusnet IPv6 High Touch Trial Launch

[#1]

Hi all,

It’s been a while updating where we are with IPv6 but I can now confirm that we are now ready to trial IPv6 on our High Touch broadband network. Plusnet operates 2 slightly different broadband networks, one for dynamic IP addresses (which we call low touch) and one for customers with static IP address, have the broadband firewall turned on and a few other things (which we call high touch).

We’ve been testing IPv6 internally on high touch and would now like to open up the trial to a few customers so that we can get some feedback and see how it works with people with different devices and different setups.

Spaces for the trial are limited so we might have to cap the number of applicants if there’s a lot of interest.

Trial criteria to take part is:

You must currently have a static IPv4 address (or a 4 or 8 block)

You must have an IPv6 capable router (Plusnet Hub 2 is fine or one of your own)

We recommend you have at least one PC/Mac running Mac OS, Linux or Windows 10/11 in case you need to diagnose any issues

Please note that the Plusnet call centre won’t be able to help with any IPv6 issues; please start a new thread here if you see things that aren’t working and we can keep all the issues central. Part of the reason for the trial is to ensure that when the time is right to go live we can properly brief and train the call centre on the things they are likely to see.

Let me know below if you're interested or have any questions.

[#2]

Great news Dave!

I would love to be involved in the trial, and can confirm I satisfy each of the criteria.

[#3]

@dave 

I am happy to join in the IPv6 trial, I have a static IP 80.229.243.x currently using a Hub two

I have Linux, Windows 10 & 11 systems

EDIT I also host a wireguard VPN system for home access

[#4]

I am interested in joining the IPv6 trial, I have a static IP address and am using an tp-link router that has IPv6 capability.

I have a PC that can run both Windows 11 and Linux.

[#5]

@dave I would also be interested in taking part in the trial.

I have a static IP, third party router and windows 10 / 11 plus a linux based NAS

Ian

[#6]

Hi Dave Good evening

I've got Plusnet Hub 2

Can I join Ipv6 test

[#7]

@DJMcKenzie87  Unfortunately, it looks like you don’t have static ip.

[#8]

I'd be interested in taking part in the trial. I have a single static IP address, and a Windows 11 PC, as well as a Raspberry Pi running RISC OS, which should be capable of running IPv6.

My router is a TP-Link and has IPv6 capability.

My only concern is my TV (Android) and my Echo Show 5 and Fire TV Cube 2nd Gen are capable of working with it, and if your internal testing has shown how to deal with devices with no IPv6 capability.

[#9]

We're running dual stack IPv4/IPv6, so your router gets allocated both your existing static IPv4 and also a /56 IPv6 prefix. Devices on your LAN will continue to be allocated a private IPv4 address e.g. 192.168.1.x or 10.0.0.x but will also be allocated one or more public IPv6 addresses where they support IPv6.

I've got a mixture of devices on my network where some support IPv6 like like my Linux server, Mac and iPhone and some don't like my lightbulbs and TV. The ones that don't support IPv6 just work exactly as they did before I had IPv6. LAN traffic is IPv4 and then it's NAT'd out to the Internet using the IPv4 public IP.

For the devices that do support IPv6 then where the service they are connecting to supports IPv6 like this forum or Netflix or Google then the traffic should favour IPv6. And where the service doesn't support IPv6 like www.plus.net then it will favour IPv4. That's mostly done at a DNS level, where if you get a AAAA DNS record with an IPv6 address it should try IPv6 first and where there's only IPv4 DNS records it'll just do IPv4.

There are other ways of doing IPv6 and IPv4 where you might only get an IPv6 address on your router and no IPv4 public address or you get a CG-NAT IPv4 and IPv6, we aren't trialling any of those so on our trial you should see every device either getting both IPv4 and IPv6 or just IPv4 (potentially there are some IoT devices that just do IPv6 but unless you already have an IPv6 tunnel broker account or similar we probably don't need to think about those at the moment).

[#10]

Thanks for letting me know. I'd like to join the trial in that case.

[#11]

Yes please! Let me know what information you need to sign me up.

[#12]

Hi Dave, I am interested in joining your trial

[#13]

Hi Dave,

I'd be happy to test, Currently running a static IP and have a Asus AX6000 router which is definitely capable of running IPV6 😀

[#14]

Excellent news, been waiting for this. I believe I meet the requirements, I have a static IP, I currently use Hub two in bridge mode with UniFi cloud gateway, happy to trial it in any configuration. Also have laptops for diagnosis. I also work in IT, so happy to troubleshoot any issues.

[#15]

I'd like to join the trial too, please. Let me know what you need.

Thanks