Yahoo IPv6 Upgrade Could Shut Out 1M Users 290
alphadogg writes "Yahoo is forging ahead with a move to IPv6 on its main Web site by year-end despite worries that up to 1 million Internet users may be unable to access it initially. Yahoo's massive engineering effort to support IPv6 — the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol — could at first shut out potential www.yahoo.com users due to what the company and others call 'IPv6 brokenness.'"
IPv6 "brokenness" =/= lack of IPv4 support (Score:4, Informative)
That isn't what they're doing (yet). Although the headline/summary made it sound like they were shutting out IPv4 users, this is not the case. They will be supporting both simultaneously.
What that means is that if a website advertises itself as simultaneously IPv4/IPv6 compliant, and someone's computer/browser thinks they are IPv6 compliant but their attempts to connect via IPv6 don't make it through (ISP? router? modem? who knows), their connection times out and the site is unreachable.
The solution in this case would be to identify the node that doesn't support IPv6 (might be difficult) or force the system on the user-end to use IPv4 (shouldn't be that hard). It certainly shouldn't be the end of the world, and it shouldn't really even affect too many people. And it will be a push to at least support IPv6 (not necessarily require it) at every step of the path so that users whose computers are capable of IPv6 connections can actually connect successfully over it.
Re:Real question is... (Score:2, Informative)
Yahoo Sports is the highest trafficked sports site on the web, more than ESPN, CNN-SI, AOL Fanhouse, FoxSports, CBS Sportsline, etc.
Re:IPv6 "brokenness" =/= lack of IPv4 support (Score:5, Informative)
That isn't what they're doing (yet). Although the headline/summary made it sound like they were shutting out IPv4 users, this is not the case. They will be supporting both simultaneously.
You are correct. I believe it's called "running a dual stack."
If slashdotters want to test whether their present system (client, router, NAT, firewall, proxy, ISP) is IPv6-ready, go here [test-ipv6.com]. Its free and there s a ton of good information about the conversion "issues" and what you'll need to do to become a full IPv6 citizen.