[afripv6-discuss] First tests with IPv6

[Nishal Goburdhan]

On 14 Jul 2015, at 8:52, Willy Ted MANGA wrote:

> Hello Daniel,
> Le 13/07/2015 10:36, Daniel Shaw a écrit :
>>
>>> On Jun 29, 2015, at 9:34 PM, Willy Ted MANGA
>>> <willy.manga at auf.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> I read about «Ting'a ting'a » too but I got a forbidden page
>>> when I tried the form at the end of this page [2] .
>>>
>>> 2. http://afrinic.net/initiatives/tinga-tinga
>>
>> Hi Willy,
>>
>> The form linked from the above is now fixed. However, I can also
>> perhaps tell you a bit more about Ting’a Ting’a.
>
> Thanks for the fix !
>
>> First thing to note is that as per the link above, it’s targeted
>> primarily at organisations rather than individuals at home
>
> That's my case.
>
>> [...] Second, AFRINIC currently only has one “POP” for Ting’a
>> Ting’a which is located in Johannesburg, South Africa physically.
>> To get an idea of how your connectivity to that network is, you can
>> traceroute to our web server or whois server which are in the same
>> ASN. You may find that you have better connectivity to HE,
>> depending on how your upstream IPv4 ISP connects you globally.
>
> Between HE POP in london and us there are 9 routers . Between Afrinic
> and us 12 routers.
> I think I will use HE tunnel only for the moment. And keep in mind I
> may use Ting'a Ting'a later.


you probably *do not* want to do that later, unless there is a direct 
network path between you, and the afrinic node in JNB (or KE).  or at 
any future, closer-to-you, locations.  fairly obvious reasons;  worse 
latency (more than hop count), and, ting’ating’a was never intended 
to be a long term project.  it was meant to help fix the stop-gap 
problem of there not being “local” (or, well connected, regional) 
tunnelbrokers in africa.  as more as more networks start routing IPv6, 
ting’ating’a was meant to quietly die away …

what you probably *do* want to do is, to bug your ISP about IPv6.  even 
if they can not deliver native IPv6 to you, they can probably give you a 
tunnel that terminates inside their network, which should be better 
performance for you.  i seem to recall that CAMTEL did advertise an IPv6 
prefix some time ago  (though i don’t know if there’s active use in 
there)

getting your (local) ISP to do this has many other advantages:
* it should give you better network performance
* it forces your ISP to think about IPv6 and what it plans to do for its 
customers
* it helps them (and you) to find and fix nascent problems inside their 
network (if any) so that when they are ready for prime-time deployment, 
there will be fewer network issues
* if you encourage other (local) users to use IPv6, you aren’t 
penalised by international latency for what should be local 
communication.
* that will encourage your ISP to build more of its border/peering 
networks to be v6 enabled, and, if they aren’t already doing so, peer 
at the local (or soon to be coming) IXP, using IPv6.
…etc.

tunnels (to connect) are just an entry point to the learning process.
so good job getting that done, but don’t let it lie there.  always 
push for what’s best…

—n.