Wired/ethernet pure ipv6 router?

Question

I'd like to be prepared for the future and therefore would like to buy a wired/ethernet ipv6 router. The problem is that many routers that are ipv6 capable are only so by using 6to4 (or tunnels or whatever) which AFAIK is not pure ipv6 but just a hack (it is really ipv4 disguised as ipv6). I'd like it to support IPsec as well.

I've seen the list at SixSX but which are pure ipv6 ? This is for home use so the router must not cost a fortune like the Cisco ones cost ! I'm thinking < $100 ???

Am I jumping the gun here ? Is it better to wait even though ipv4 exhaustion is nearby ?

EDIT:

Actually, you can get ipv6 without buying a new router:

1. modify the router's configuration to bridge mode with DHCP disabled

2. reconfigure your operating system's network settings

Answer 1

If this is for home use, you're still jumping the gun by quite a bit. If you're curious, Comcast is documenting their IPv6 work here:

http://www.comcast6.net/

They do list three devices that they sanctioned for their (closed!) IPv6 trial earlier this year.

• The Apple Airport Extreme
• The Netgear WNR3500
• The Netgear WNR1000

It would not surprise me in the least that OpenWRT has IPv6 support already.

Answer 2

It is very unlikely that you can get "native" IPv6 transit at home, for at least another year, maybe two or three depending on your metro area. If you're in an area that's getting one of the pilot projects (comcast, FIOS) you'll probably see it sooner.

Until then, you're going to have to tunnel. An IPv6 tunnel will be virtually indistinguishable from a native connection for almost all purposes.

That requires a machine at your end to host the tunnel endpoint, and a tunnel broker.

DD-WRT and many of the other open source firmware options for WRT-54 family of devices will act as a tunnel endpoint. There are also D-LINK and Linksys devices that will do it with factory firmware (with caveats, see below). My favorite so far is the Apple Airport Extreme. Or you can put your endpoint on a Linux, Mac or Windows host.

As for tunnel brokers, Hurricane Electric (AKA tunnelbroker.net) and Sixxs are well known and reliable, and offer free tunnels for home users.

My tunnelbroker.net+Airport IPv6 tunnel has at this point been up for almost three months with no interruptions of any kind.

Note that D-LINK and some of the Linksys home routers offer IPv6 support, BUT only on the latest hardware revisions. I ordered a specific D-LINK router that advertised IPv6 support, only to find that the support was dependent on the hardware rev. Even though the new "B" rev (IPv6 capable) had been shipping for over a year, Amazon shipped a rev "A" hardware device, and I could only find "A" revs at the local computer stores. "A rev == no IPv6 support even possible. I've heard the same horror story with some Linksys kit as well. Make sure that you can return the device if it doesn't support IPv6, or go the low risk (higher cost) Apple Airport route. Or set your endpoint on one of the computers in your house instead of the home router.

Answer 3

OpenWRT supports IPv6, so any router which will run it will be IPV6 capable. The current cable routers are not yet capable of IPv6, so you need to use a tunnel to connect to the IPv6 Internet. The companies who provide the cable boxes are working on ways to implement IPv6, but they have limited memory and will need to provide dual stack capability for a while.