Why is HN not reachable through IPv6?

Why does it feel like IPv6 has failed? There's a real need for bigger address space, but it looks like IPv6 is too much of a hassle.

GitHub is the worst offender. It’s a major reason why V6 only VMs and cloud is a pain even though it’s cheaper in some cases.

The biggest problem with ipv6 right now is that the DNS record system needs to be updated to support both simultaneously. Right now, it is necessary to perform the AAAA lookup alongside the A lookup which doubles the workload on the DNS. Also, ipv6 coverage is still spotty enough that it is sometimes more efficient to open both ipv4 and ipv6 in parallel in order to pick the one which performs better.

The problem is that websites will, for the foreseeable future, have to be accessible via ipv4 else suffer a significant reduction in traffic. The issues that I've mentioned above are the reasons why nobody is currently rushing to implement ipv6. Depending on what websites you use, as little as 20% might be accessible via ipv6. This will hold true, I think, for 5 to 10 years.

I don't believe that ipv4 will go away. One reason is because ipv6 is unwieldly in comparison. For one thing, the format is imprecise because it does not enforce consistency. There are dozens of different ways to write an ipv6 address because leading zeroes are allowed while leading zeroes are illegal under ipv4. Personally, I have a real beef with the use of the colon as a separator.

My prediction is that, as ipv6 becomes more endemic on the Internet back-end and the pressure on the ipv4 address space eases, then ipv4 addressing will become MORE attractive on the Internet front-end (meaning the consumer).

There's a lot more work for IPv6 support than just throwing a AAAA record on a domain. A few of them:

- IPv6 Peerage.

- An IPv4 or IPv6 broker.

- First party software configuration.

- Support from upstream and downstream from infrastructure/partners and configuration.

It is a significant project. People think you just assign an IPv6 IP, throw in a AAAA record, and then it magically just works. More than likely you'd just create a block-hole where IPv6 traffic goes to die.

i guess cause "if it aint broke..."

Its not only hn. Many other sites are too lazy for v6. Even at my work its an full v4 network. Some processes are even technically unable for v6.