Recently, I had a conversation with my hosting provider to determine if they had IPv6 support. I’m interested in getting my web site set up and reachable via IPv6. Below is a copy of the conversation I had with their customer support, and clearly indicates we’ve got a long way before IPv6 is ready for the masses:
Bluehost Support: Hi, how can I help you?
Stefan: Hi, I am a hosting customer and I was wondering if you currently have support for IPv6?
Bluehost Support: Let me look into that for you.
Bluehost Support: Yes, we do support IPv6.
Stefan: Great! Is there a cost associated with that and how do I go about setting that up?
Bluehost Support: I am sorry, we cannot give you IPv6 until our IP5 runs out.
Stefan: Wait, you just told me you have support for IPv6. What the heck is IP5?
Bluehost Support: IP5 is the version before IP6. We can’t give you an IP6 until our IP5 runs out. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.
Wow, that’s really sad. Why wait until they run out of v4 (sorry, v5) before handing out v6? Makes no sense.
And yes, staff training is the biggest issue to v6 coming mainstream. A lot of people (myself, sadly, included) don’t understand it very well and things people don’t understand, they fear.
They never said to you change the cables position on your home router???
Well myabe IPv5 come soon!!! Lets wait and look… lol
Cya!
Leandro Alencar
The only thing I can think of (and it’s a stretch) is that they have some service offering called “IP” and it’s currently at version 5.
Time for a 6in4 tunnel.
– Mark
There are so many people, even working as an IT engineers don’t know or never heard about IPv6. That’s very strange.
Yeah, I knew exactly what they were referring to when they were mentioning IP5 but I thought I’d have a little fun with it, which was why I asked them what the heck they were referring to when they mentioned IP5… There is obviously going to need to be a massive education effort over the next few years as we start to make the transition.
Bluehost Support: I know that we are not offering full ipv6 support until january sometime.
🙂 That was fun.. I setup a small IPv6 network by connecting three routers couple of years ago and learned it. I am such a slacker that never turned to it again, now it looks like there are dozens of RFC’s that I have to read to catch the bus.. What a slacker I am…
If it was some guy behind the counter at a market, I would say no big deal. But a Bluehost technician should know better. It is as if they don’t know the answer to a question, they are taught to lie. Very, very sad support.
But it sure is funny!
BlueHost recently started advertising 2604:ba00::/32 and 2605:dc00::/32: http://bgp.he.net/AS11798. Hope springs eternal.
This problem goes a lot deeper than most people realise. I have heard this from colocation providers and carriers (mentioning no names at all here!!!). “We have plenty of IPv4 space, so why do you want IPv6? It’s not like we’re going to run out anytime soon”. *sigh*
A little clarification. Bluehost’s servers support IPV6, but they do no have a set date of implementing it yet. Also I suggest contacting chat support if you want to talk to someone who is more educated.
Although everyone is excited about IPv6, it will be years before it is a standard for everyone.
Google reports that IPv6 adoption hovers around 2/3rds of 1 percent. http://www.google.com/ipv6/statistics.html
Using IPv6 requires a router that supports IPv6, and an ISP that provides/routes IPv6 as well.
The response you should have gotten from the Bluehost technician is that Bluehost systems are fully compatible and ready to work with IPv6, however you are not able to use IPv6 on our systems yet. All accounts will function as normal.
🙂
It’s late 2013. I’ve been trying to find out if Bluehost has made progress as it pertains to ipv6, but I haven’t been able to get any updated information. Is there still no ipv6 support for sites hosted at bluehost?