The Next Steps

Great! Now you have address space, but it's not very useful unless we actually have something to hook it up to. Fortunately, this isn't that hard. We need a few more tools.

  • A Linux server running the 2.6.2x kernel. (We're using Fedora 10)
  • The packages iproute2, radvd, shorewall and shorewall6. (These are all available by typing yum install <package name>)

We will assume you've set up Fedora 10 or another appropriate Linux kernel, and that you have two or more interfaces on it. To install the needed packages, as root, run the comands:

#yum install iproute2

#yum install radvd

#yum install shorewall

#yum install shorewall6

Setting Up Interfaces

Now that you have a V6 ready Linux box, it's time to actually activate the tunnel. To do this, per Hurricane Electric, add the following lines to the end of your /etc/rc.d/rc.local file:

modprobe ipv6

ip tunnel add he-ipv6 mode sit remote 66.220.18.42 local 74.93.0.52 ttl 255

ip link set he-ipv6 up ip addr add 2001:470:c:60c::2/64 dev he-ipv6

ip route add ::/0 dev he-ipv6 ip -f inet6 addr

What All Of This Means

Upon reboot, the five lines above now do the followin:

  1. Make sure IPv6 code is loaded and active
  2. Tell IP to create a tunnel named he-ipv6 with a remote IPv4 endpoint of 66.220.18.42.  The local endpoint (my end) is 74.93.0.52
  3. Set up this new interface with our point-to-point address and raise the link
  4. Finally, set the defualt route (all zeros just as with IPv4) to go through this link.

And the big question?  Did it work?

One way to find out.  As root, type the following command:

#ping6 2001:470:c:60c::1

Just as with IPv4, if a ping response is received, the IPv6 link is up and running.  You're on the IPv6 Internet!