alt Hacker NewsI try enabling IPv6 every year or so. The last time I tried IPv6 at home I couldn't figure out what my netmask was, nor the size of my allocation. Some folks say my ISP issues /60s, others /64. I couldn't figure out how to get my IP to remain static long enough to have long-running TCP sessions, either. It was a mess and not much better than it was 20 years ago when I first tried it (and had to disable it because it being on broke all sorts of things).
Maybe 2026 will be the year of IPv6. I kinda doubt it given I'm some jackass and dedicated network professionals still don't use IPv6.
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Probably the largest barrier to IPv6 adoption is the myriad ways IP allocation to clients can be done and the various options that exist.
It’s fine for mobile providers, where the client activation defines what’s needed and the carrier essentially just needs to support two OS’s (iOS and Android).
Also mostly fine for residential when the carrier provides the CPE, and can set it up to work with how they have the network built.
But if you’re managing your own router it can be complex to know exactly what to use. And most ISP support aren’t very good either.
If you happen to be an expert it’s fine, but if you’re a power user not a full time network guy there is still way more complexity than there ought to be.
If you have ATT fiber, it’s a pain in the butt. Their default router will only issue a single passthrough /64 on request. If you have multiple VLANs you have to setup some scripts to ask for more, and even then you only get 8 of them. The gateway reserves the other 8 from the /60 it gets for its own use.
The only way I got IPv6 working well with them was to bypass their gateway. Now all my VLANs have /64, which is the standard subnet size.
Why are you setting up anything? You turn on IPv6, the router figures out its prefix from the upstream router, and then router broadcasts the network to devices.
The netmask for IPv6 is nearly always /64. ISPs give out /60 to allow multiple subnets, but router makes /64 subnets from that.