ipv6 at home, part 3: gogonet tunnels, freenet6

This blog post is part of a series on ipv6. In part 1, I provided an overview of ipv6 and looked at Teredo, the technology built into Windows Vista; in part 2, I looked at AYIYA tunnels through aiccu, using sixxs net as a tunnel broker. Part 2.5 is a collection of useful ipv6 tidbits, and this part 3 gets back to the original plan: Exploring ipv6 connectivity options – in this case, the tunnel offered by gogo6 (formerly Hexago) at go6.net. gogonet.

Tunnel overview

freenet6, the tunnel service offered by gogo6, uses TSP (Tunnel Setup Protocol) to determine the best tunnel type. It offers IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnels in Native mode (direct connection to a public ipv4 address, no NAT), IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnels in NAT traversal mode (also called IPv6-in-UDP-is-IPv4; this is what you’ll most likely use), and even IPv4-in-IPv6 tunnels (using DSTM, used to reach ipv4 resources if you have an ipv6 address but no ipv4 address – not a very likely scenario at this point in time).

The tunnel service is delivered through gateway6, an incredibly intuitive and easy-to-use client. Both anonymous and authenticated tunnels are available. An anonymous tunnel will provide ipv6 access for the machine the gateway6 client is installed on; an authenticated tunnel gives you a routable /56 network to hand out to the rest of your network.

Setting up an anonymous tunnel

Install the gateway6 client; launch it; leave everything at default; hit “Connect”.

Test your connection by browsing to ipv6.google.com.

In this mode, your assigned ipv6 address will change as your ipv4 address changes.

I should spruce this paragraph up by adding a screen shot of the gateway6 client with all default settings, but it feels gratuitous. This method of connection is hands-down the easiest way to get ipv6 connectivity that you are likely to find.

Setting up an authenticated tunnel

Sign up with go6.net. freenet6. This is separate from the gogonet account you need to even download the client.

Install the gateway6 client.

Change the “Gateway6 address” to be “authenticated.freenet6.net”.

Set the client to “Connect using the following credentials”, and enter your user name and password with go6.net.

On the off-chance that a tunnel endpoint would default to clear-text authentication, you can go to the “Advanced” tab and change your Tunnel Authentication Method to either PASS DSS 3DES1 or Digest MD5.

Hit “Connect” and test your connection by browsing to ipv6.google.com.

In this mode, your assigned ipv6 address will remain static, even if your ipv4 address changes.

Setting up routing to the rest of your network

go6.net will assign a /56 prefix to you on an authenticated tunnel, if you request it.

The simplest way to set this up is:

On the “Advanced” tab, check “Enable Routing Advertisements”. Choose the LAN interface that will serve the ipv6 prefix to the rest of your network. Leave the prefix length at /64.

Hit Connect, and check the “Status” tab – you’ll see your assigned /56 prefix. Of which you are currently using the first /64 – if you have further subnets, you can start assigning more /64s and routing them to the machine that runs the gateway6 client.

Advanced options – running on a router, reverse DNS delegation

Through changing the gw6c.conf file, you can use the gateway6 client to request configuration for a router; and you can request delegation of your ipv6 prefix to your own name server for RDNS (PTR) resolution.

RDNS delegation is set up by simply changing the “dns_server=” entry.

You can run the gateway6 client as a “proxy”, in which mode it will request configuration information for a router. This is described in the gogonet forums. You’d want to set the requested prefix length to /56, not /48 – otherwise, no changes should be necessary.

The provided template outputs configuration for a Cisco router. You can take the relevant information out of the Cisco config file and use it with a Juniper device, or DLink, Apple, any router that supports 6-in-4 (protocol 41) tunnels. You could also write your own template script to output the information in the format your router requires – it’s a simple batch file.

Final thoughts

If you want ipv6 connectivity, and you do not intend to gain it through your router, gogonet should be your first stop. The gateway6 client shows that gaining ipv6 connectivity, and setting up routing to everything else in your network, does not have to be complicated, or involve lengthy command-line sessions.

If you want to terminate your tunnel on a router, give Hurricane Electric a look. Their tunnel setup does not require a client running on a PC – on the other hand, that means it won’t present the router configuration commands to you on a silver platter, either. Consider also that freenet6 has a somewhat patchy record when it comes to reliably handing out your delegated prefix: In the past, prefix numbers would change, and that messes with your router setup and your RDNS.

I had, when I first started writing this series, deliberately placed go6.net behind Teredo and SixXS: I knew it was going to be far easier to set up than those other two, and wanted to progress from “complicated” to “easy” as the series went on. I had not counted on getting stuck quite so hard on routing with the SixXS aiccu setup. In hindsight, covering the easiest method first might have been cleverer.