[Server-devel] let's write a compiler!

[David Woodhouse]

On Tue, 2007-07-10 at 09:01 -0400, C. Scott Ananian wrote:
> On 7/10/07, David Woodhouse <dwmw2 at infradead.org> wrote:
> > We're currently exploring the ways in which the server will act as a
> > 'mesh portal' and provide IPv6 routing. Very little of the higher-level
> > stuff has even been discussed, as far as I'm aware. The most useful
> > thing you can do right now, if you're desperate for a server-related
> > task, is either test all the software on the laptop to make sure it
> > works correctly in an IPv6-only environment, or look at implementing
> > something akin to NAT-PT which will allow TCP connections to Legacy IP
> > addresses.
> 
> To expand on this short list of possible tasks:
>  - I would really like to see an implementation of IPv6 SEND (RFC3971)
> at some point, although this is not likely to be available for first
> release.  I have not yet been able to locate an implementation.  Maybe
> one exists, floating around one of the Linux IPv6 projects.  Locating
> or writing one would be very valuable (and require very little
> short-term coordination with the rest of the project, minimizing the
> f2f needed).
> 
>  - At the moment, IPv4 connections are funneled through whatever NAT
> the school has on their IPv4 connection.  This may restrict the # of
> open IPv4 connections dramatically.  We'd like to do better.
> NAT-PT/SIIT have been implemented by various hardware manufacturers,
> but have serious problems (see
> http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-v6ops-natpt-to-historic-00.txt

This is mostly just the IPv6 purist 'NAT is harmful' stuff. Since we're
almost certainly behind NAT for all Legacy IP connection anyway, it
really isn't very relevant.

> ).  Another option is and IPv4-to-IPv6 translator for websites akin to
> http://www.sixxs.net/misc/coolstuff/ which could run on the school
> server.  Since the school server already runs a (caching) proxy for
> bandwidth conservation, a clever hack might be for the school server
> to do something clever to serve IPv4 content.  (IPv4 connectivity is
> assumed to be NATed and not globally routable, while IPv6 connectivity
> is globally routable but the IPv6 tunnel endpoint may not be terribly
> local.)

Squid is unfortunately not IPv6-capable. On our prototype machine in 1cc
I've already set up Apache as a proxy, which allows connections to
legacy sites from the IPv6 network. There is a new proxy server being
developed for us to use, I believe.

-- 
dwmw2