[AusNOG] IPv6 Article on CNN

[Kevin Karp]

Hi Skeeve

>What exactly does StudentNet do with v6 that it couldn't do with v4?

Where do I begin?

Let's start with.... Some of the schools are about to trial Microsoft 
Windows Direct Access which they now have in their shiny new Windows 7 
laptops (connected to their Windows Server 2008's).

Studentnet NextMail enables and supports remote use of MS Direct Access 
by the schools. How will they do that in IPv4?

Then we can mention... each student is given their own globally 
addressable IP address that they retain not only for the life of their 
attendance at school but subsequently as well (just as they do their 
gmail addresses). Some of the schools have over a thousand pupils and, 
of course, even more alumni.

This permits geographical independence for the student (whilst still 
being part of the school's network). It also permits direct access 
between the students and between the students and the school.

Why is that useful to the schools? Firstly they can have finer grain and 
more direct control (via the firewall that we provide to them) over the 
nature and extent of the traffic that flows through the school's system 
(want to make sure that only year 8 Geography has access to google maps 
via the school's resources even if some of them are at home - you got it).

Secondly the schools can more readily trace activity to individual 
student(s), especially of an untoward nature - Cyber bullying is a very 
sensitive topic and an instant attention getter.

Can the schools do that with IPv4? Yes with a great deal of work sifting 
DHCP data - if they are lucky enough for the students to be on the local 
network at school.

What if the student is at home? Are eIntellego's ISP clients going to 
give access to the school's network admin to their ISP logs of 
dynamically allocated IPv4 addresses to determine whose home initiated 
the untoward behaviour? Some how I think not.

Can the students get around these controls? Of course they can, but the 
activities they perform whilst using the school's resources are now so 
much more accountable.

Regards

Kevin

PS. By the way it's Studentnet, not StudentNet.

-- 
STUDENTNET® - Highly Commended: Australian Privacy Awards 2008
    Kevin Karp                           kjk at studentnet.edu.au
    next.studentnet.edu.au                  Tel +61 2 9281 1626
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