* Verio’s IPv6 Tunneling Service now available to any U.S. company with a standard Internet connection
Verio, a subsidiary of NTT Communications which was the first ISP to offer IPv6 services in the U.S., is offering a tunneling service that will allow any U.S. company to have IPv6 connectivity through a standard Internet connection.
Verio’s IPv6 Tunneling Service is available immediately throughout the U.S. It costs $150 per month for a .5M bits/sec connection.
“It doesn’t matter where you are, whether it’s Billings, Mont. or Washington, D.C.,” says Cody Christman, Verio’s director of product engineering. “As long as you can get IPv4 Internet access, you can take advantage of our IPv6 services.”
IPv6 is a long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet’s main protocol, which is known as IPv4.
Developed by the IETF, IPv6 promises easier administration, tighter security and an enhanced addressing scheme over IPv4. IPv6 uses a 128-bit addressing scheme and supports a virtually limitless number of uniquely identified systems on the ‘Net, while IPv4 supports only a few billion systems because it uses a 32-bit addressing scheme.
IPv6 has been slow to catch on in the U.S. because only a handful of ISPs including Verio and MCI offer commercial IPv6 services. With its new offering, Verio will allow any U.S. organization with an IPv6-capable router to begin experimenting with IPv6.
“Regardless of who your service provider is, if you’re getting IPv4 service from anybody, you can get an off-net IPv6 tunnel from us,” Christman says. “We will help you configure the tunnel from your CPE over your provider’s IPv4 network and terminate that connection on our network, which is dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6.”
Christman says that Verio is the first ISP in the U.S. to offer an IPv6 tunneling service of this kind. “I’m not aware of any other ISP with this offering,” he says.
Until now, Verio has offered on-net IPv6 services including tunneling, dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 and native IPv6 services. Its new IPv6 tunneling service is an off-net capability, meaning it doesn’t run entirely over Verio’s network.
Verio is targeting small businesses with its IPv6 Tunneling Service, which is about one-third the cost of Verio’s regular T-1 speed, on-net IPv6 services.
“Our on-net IPv6 services are getting sucked up by the Fortune 500 companies. Most of them have the resources to install a new IPv6 circuit on-net with Verio,” Christman says. “The IPv6 Tunneling Service is for companies that want IPv6 access that’s relatively inexpensive. Performance is pretty good as long as their ISP offers solid IPv4 service.”
One of Verio’s initial customers is Native6, an IPv6 consulting and training shop in Seattle. Native6 CEO Yurie Rich says the company had limited options for obtaining IPv6 connectivity.
“In working with the engineers at Verio, we were able to provision a tunnel that significantly increased the quality of our IPv6 connection,” Rich said in a statement. “Verio’s off-net tunneling service was the right way for us to go.”
Organizations interested in Verio’s IPv6 Tunneling Service need an IPv6 capable router that supports the IETF’s Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) techniques.
“The significance of this announcement is that not too many ISPs offer IPv6 and it’s very difficult for companies to test IPv6,” Christman says. “Our new service gives anyone, anywhere the chance to get a commercial-grade, well-performing IPv6 connection. And it allows them to do it at a relatively low cost. The hurdles to doing this are very low because you don’t have to buy new CPE and you don’t have to change ISPs. You just come to us, fill out some paperwork, and you’ll be up and running with IPv6.”
