fah-issues
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FoldingAtHome
IPv6 support
| Trac | Data |
|---|---|
| Ticket | 505 |
| Reported by | @Ivoshiee |
| Status | accepted |
| Component | FAHClient |
| Priority | 7 (minor) |
| Version | 7.1 |
With imminent IPv4 address space depletion it should be natural to at least to start thinking about adding IPv6 support into the FAH client and other FAH infrastructure as well.
Comment by @jcoffland I've heard the reports but I think it's mostly hype. I believe we are far from depleting the IPv4 address space and IPv4 applications will have to be supported for a very long time. However, IPv6 support would be a good idea. It's no small task.
Comment by @bb30994 There are a number of reports of "Unable to download a FahCore" problems on foldingforum.org. The client can still download WUs and return results but when there's an update to a core (or a missing core) the client is unable to proceed without a new core.
This problem was difficult to diagnose because it didn't happen to everybody. Somebody discovered that the cause appears to have been the installation of IPV6 support on their LAN. Those who only have support for IPV4 do not have this problem.
This is no longer a low-priority enhancement.
Comment by @bb30994 It has been suggested that the FAH Client is coded to accept a IPV4 address but on a dual-stack OS, when DNS passes it an unexpected IPV6 address, it doesn't handle the full address properly. Microsoft has a hot-fix for the problem. See Resolving Internet connectivity issues after World IPv6 Launch (June 6, 2012): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2533454
The fact that they have not distributed this fix as an important fix in Windowsupdate very likely implies that the "prefer IPV4..." fix isn't considered a permanent fix but I'm not sure I'm able to read MS's mind in what will happen next. Fixing the application is really the only good solution.
Comment by @Ivoshiee I recall as seeing that FAH core download issue on my dual stack Fedora Rawhide machine. I resolved it by copying FAH cores manually over from the other box and didn't diagnose it any deeper.
Comment by @jcoffland The problem with not being able to download the core sounds like an OS bug not a client bug. IPv6 setups will have to support IPv4 applications for many many years to come. I still don't think this is a high priority. Considering that it could also cause problems running on IPv4 only systems I don't see IPv6 support an advantage for F@H at this time.
Has there been any progress on this? IPv6 support is basically for free in most networking libraries (e.g. BSD sockets), unless one pays special attention to disabling it.
The client is somewhat painful to use in my IPv6-only network. I couldn't find a way to specify IPv6 addresses in the <allow>, <deny> or <http-addresses>, with error messages revolving around unsuccessful parsing of :.
Hiya @andrejpodzimek
There's no update as of yet. If you're running the client locally and are also monitoring it locally, then IPv6 isn't needed. However, this might not work for your use-case 😞
