I think we need to make a magic pill to give to web server admins which will simply do everything for you, walking you through converting your web server setup to support IPv6. Such a hand-holding mechanism, conceptually like what used to be called ‘wizards’ years ago in GUIs, also need to help you get set up with IPv6 service to your server too, or else the job is only half done. Some years back, letsencrypt and acme made it sufficiently easy that web server admins managed to get https/TLS support up and running, getting rid of the incomprehensible challenges that mere mortals could not cope with and getting rid of the costs for certs. That was pushed through by the big web browser manufacturers who changed their UI to effectively almost require https. That initiative was very successful and got the change implemented in a short space of time. It proves to me that something that offers serious handholding would once again work and could fix the current ridiculous problem of poor IPv6 support by web server admins. A sister initiative to my "letsipv6" for web servers would be welcome for email servers and clients.
Unlike the case of the https switchover, I don’t know that there’s going to be a big push from somewhere to make server admins get IPv6 done. Chrys discussed this and I’m unclear how to get such a big push to happen. I think we really do need such pressure. Maybe something very vaguely like a star rating system for ISPs and websites, which conveys prestige on those who have got the work done. I have no idea if that’s the right approach or would be strong enough; I’m proud to say I know precisely zero about marketing, but perhaps there is someone out there who is an expert.
I think that such a "letsipv6" wizard application would have to be such that the user can leave the app at any time, saving the state, the amount of the overall job done and tasks still to be done, and then the user can resume some more of the process later. That is needed because the user will sometimes realise that they need to pause and give more thought to answering some questions and making choices, or they need to do something outside the program before they are in a position to continue. For web servers, the system would have to be very modular and capable of dealing with different o/s’s and the associated techniques for reconfiguring them, and on top of that there is the problem of multiple popular web server software packages. I wonder, would the variability between the various linux + BSD distros be an utter pain?
I think that some of the required components of this kind of wizard system would need to be on some servers somewhere. This would be for testing the new system and verifying that it’s working serving up http(s) as expected.
Alongside this, we need continued research into IPv6 (or even IPv6.1) aimed at discovering ways of offering more value to end users, network operators, ISPs. Improved performance compared with IPv4 (hard), enhanced reliability (already there in one situation, maybe improvements in other aspects though too), maybe assistance toward mobility, bearing in mind that we already have IPv6 mobility but it doesn’t seem to have taken off, at least not in some (many?) parts of the world. I think that this is very hard, given that innovations that are applied with ipv6 can usually be applied with ipv4 as well, so my instinct tells me.
