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One of the main issues I think is holding IPv6 back is that we keep needing to memorize IPs and type them by hand. 192.168.0.16, 172.16/12, and 10.0.0.0/8 are easy to remember, and usually it’s just the last number that’s important, anyway, because we all use 192.168.1.0/24 by default.

But then IPv6 comes along with /48 prefixes and endless numbers to read, analyze (same subnet? typos?), memorize or write down. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

IPv6 would have to integrate some sort of DNS resolver on a network level so that people can work with computer names. That would make the hostname actually relevant and not have every Windows be called DESKTOP-W38D6M5P. If you already have a separate DNS service, it’s only the registration step that has slightly more friction, but still.

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AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

because we all use 192.168.1.0/24 by default.

This is a bigger deal than you may think. Those of us stubborn enough to use one of the other defined internal network ranges already hit more obstacles than we should, and that difference should be trivial to non-existent.

For me the latest is a smart home device that hard-coded 192.168.1.x, so I am not able to connect it to my network

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- False@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Most network devices can have multiple IPs. Assign 192.168.1.1 to your router (in addition to your normal up) and it should probably start routing traffic to that device
  
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False@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Is configuration part of a layer’s responsibility?

You should see the unfinished proposal for ipv8. The authors think yes to a large degree, though not how you’re thinking.

www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-thain-ipv8-00.html

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- TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I wish they would say that IPv8 is a proper superset of IPv4 and not that IPv4 is a proper subset of IPv8, just because they’re building IPv8 on top of the existing IPv4.
  
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- mech@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This sounds like they realize v6 sucked and want to build something you can just plug into a v4 network.
  
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PaintedSnail@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Without a central server, hostname resolution is handled with mDNS. It is designed to do exactly what you’re asking: allow you to resolve hostnames to IP addresses without a DNS server. A node simply broadcasts (multicasts) a request for who has a name, and whichever node has it responds with their IP.

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- Randelung@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Whenever I’ve come across mDNS it was unstable and not installed. Bonjour was distributed with iTunes and sucked (15y ago). I could see mDNS supplying additional info for a configuration tool, but the IP layer remains reliant on IPs.
  
  What bugs me is that IPv6 has built-in neighbor discovery that almost does what mDNS does, which could just have included a hostname… It’s a replacement for ARP and only ARP.
  
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