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Comment by kstrauser | Hacker News Reader

That's literally impossible, to hear some people tell it. "And also, look how hard it'd be to memorize that address", say the people who remember like 2 IPv4 addresses, one of them being 127.0.0.1.

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Tailscale, perhaps ironically in this context, has shown me the value of not caring about an IP address.

I used to. When I had a home network I'd carefully assign `10.52.1.x` where `x` was the periodic number corresponding to the machine name! (I write from `lutetium`.)

Now, with Tailscale's magic DNS – `lutetium` being all I need – why on Earth would I give a crap about an IP address? I've gone from being obsessed to truly not caring at all.

So, give me IPv6. Auto-assign everything! All I want is a name.

It's akin to remembering the phone numbers. Even 20 years ago I had like 10-20 of most important ones memorized despite some of them not used often ie once in a years. Nowadays I have 'me myself' in the Contacts because I can't remember it despite using it for 5+ years nor I care.

Hah, I kinda love your naming and numbering convention!

But yeah. On my own LAN, everything is DHCP for IPv4 and SLAAC for v6. Everything uses mDNS and I connect to everything by name, not address. I can only remember the static IP of one of the servers; the rest are purely names.

I remember like 10 different IPv4 addresses, 6 of which are DNS servers where each octet is a single number, 1 is my router, 1 is my home network switch, 1 is my home server and the last one localhost.

The main thing all those have in common is they are either something I frequently use (all mentioned local IPs) or just stupid easy to remember (DNS servers), neither of which isn't possible for IPv6.

From memory isn't localhost for IPv6 not shorter than for IPv4? The answer is yes, it is ::1 and I was thinking of the Multicast and Link-local address prefixes which are ff00:: and fe80:: respectively.

Telling people to use ULA subnet fddd:: with dhcpv6 is my way.

fddd::7 is easier to type than 10.0.0.7

"ten oh oh 7" (how I'd say it or remember it) still seems simpler than "eff dee dee dee colon colon 7". While with ipv4 the dots can be assumed for pauses, v6 doesn't put colons as often, also I could easily see myself forgetting the amount of "d"s. I don't wanna seem too anti-v6, though, I am in favor of everyone adopting the more modern thing.

edit: Well, you said easier to type. I guess I probably agree with that.

There is also the fact that an IPv6 IP has a maximum and minimum number of characters and separators, but not a set one, so the length of any given address is variable.

Instead of being able to run a groove in my head mentally, and read with any sort of rhythm, I have to read them like binary bytes. Every address feels like a foreign phone number where your normal rhythm doesn't fit, but it never gets better.

Perhaps, IMO, the greatest and only sin of IPv6. That and using fucking colons.

Dots weren't an option, because then the syntax would overlap with DNS hostnames. "2001.db8.c.d.e.f.g.ca" is a valid host under the .ca TLD.

one of those addresses requires two hands and hitting the shift key, the other is easily done one-handed.

You're looking for one of these: https://ipv6buddy.com/

When people are managing 20 devices on a network, they access everything by IP address directly and struggle with constant DNS issues.

Introducing a more complex system without easing any of the cognitive load and making fun of it is just cruel at this moment.

Users need a simpler way to connect to their devices, and what tailscale did with magic dns shows that users don’t even care about IPv4 they just want to connect to their devices with something simple they can remember.

I have 68 devices on the line at this moment. I just checked. I remember exactly one of their IPs and that’s just one that stuck in my head. I never connect to it by address.

I agree with the sibling comment: crummy CPE is crummy CPE. This is a solvable problem, but people end up with junky routers and it causes them anguish.

Weirdly this might be a CPE problem, e.g. crappy ISP routers.

Put in something more interesting, e.g. OpenWRT, or there are proprietary options too, that provides simple & reliable local LAN DNS, then the problem just goes away.

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