IPv6 utilization raises and dual stack considerations, XML vs JSON, Layer 7 DDoS, SQL-Antipatterns, Li-Fi

Post date: Mar 1, 2014 2:09:37 PM

  • IPv6 dual stack requires only marginally more resources. Because IPv6 code is already there, additional resources required to actually utilize it are marginally in current computing power terms. So if you're worried that your server runs out of resources because you enable IPv6, you really shouldn't be too worried. It seems that many forget that IPv6 is already 20 years old thing. I personally think that when IPv6 makes it mainstream, IPv4 networks will be after certain point going down the slope quite quickly. Because what now hinders IPv6, will be reverse true when supporting something old like IPv4. Of course there will be some systems running it nearly forever. But it'll be very small percentage. I'm sure you'll find DOS, Windows 3.11 and Windows'95 computers still from somewhere. But it's not the main point. Nobody creates new software for Windows 3.11 anymore. So at some point IPv4 will be practically abandoned except just a very few cases.
    • Of course there are some legacy hardware, which barely is able to run IPv4 and NAT and those won't allow adding IPv6 due hardware resource reasons. Nor it's likely that their manufacturer will anyway provide any firmware updates. It might happen if there's fatal exploit in firmware, or they'll simply say that it's better to replace those devices in that situation. But usually cost of replacing that stuff isn't so huge. Things like old el-cheapo home routers, etc. Those are replaced every now and then for other reasons too, like transitioning from ADSL to ADSL2 and ADSL2+, VDSL, VDSL2, etc. It's possible that someone is still using routers with 10 megabit coaxial cable, it's quite unlikely and it's high time to replace those anyway. Btw. Does someone still use 10 megabit hubs (not switches!), I haven't seen those in a while.
    • I believe it'll take something like a decade. But at certain point, it happens what has happened before and developers don't want to bother them with IPv4 anymore and therefore it gets abandoned. Just like we see now software which doesn't work with Windows XP even if it's still widely used. As well as some web sites won't work properly with IE6.
    • Basically similar thing has always happened when new Windows has been released. First everyone says that the new version it crap, we don't want to use it. And after a few years, everybody is wondering if someone is still using the old version. I thought everyone was saying that the "new" version is crap, why they're then using it?
    • Btw. Google's IPv6 utilization grew from 2% to 3% just in 5 months. Trend is right.
  • XML vs JSON? Who cares. That's why I usually provide both options, because it's so trivial. On request basis you can tell if you're using XML or JSON. It's so trivial. For some legacy systems I also some times provide TSV option, where data fields are dumped without keys or headers and tab separated. You might not want to believe it, but there are still developers using old systems which do not support JSON or XML and addind that support would be nightmare for them. So it's easier to provide as simple as possible data format.
  • Layer 7 DDoS - Ha, nothing new. It seems that someone else has been playing with this stuff too. Even CloudFlare doesn't protect from it.
    • Of course there are even higher level attacks than these. Like using hash collisions on internal data structures of the web-site etc. Other ways to consume surprising amounts of memory or CPU power without any kind of massive flooding. In these cases it might not be even obvious that the site is under attack.
  • Nice article, Everything you need to know about SIM cards. Just bit very light in technical details. But I liked the sticker SIM card concept. I haven't seen ever one, but yeah. That's just basically MitM attacking SIM card interface beween phone and SIM and modifying messages on the fly.
  • Added SQL-Antipatterns-Avoiding-the-Pitfalls-of-Database-Programming to my Kindle.
  • Added IPv6 validated certificate to my web page. Everything seems to be working well. Here's some IPv6 measurements & statistics.
  • Let's see when first Li-Fi devices come to market. It provides totally different method of wireless communication. Which also means that base stations have to be basically everywhere. But we're already going into this direction with nano cells etc. Where cell range can be 10-20 meters only.