Will Vista stall Net traffic?

zdnet ^ | 9/6/2006 | Joris Evers

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Thanks to new directory software, Windows Vista could put a greater load on Internet servers. But experts disagree over whether we're headed for a prime-time traffic jam or insignificant slowdown. Microsoft's launch of Windows Vista could slow down or stall traffic on the Net, said Paul Mockapetris, who is widely credited with inventing the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS). Mockapetris believes Vista's introduction will cause a surge in DNS traffic because the operating system supports two versions of the Internet Protocol, a technology standard used to send information over computer networks.

"It is going to be mud season on the Internet, where things will just be kind of slow and gooey." --Paul Mockapetris, DNS inventor "If you adopt Vista, your DNS traffic is going to double," Mockapetris said in an interview. With many DNS servers already running close to capacity, this can have serious consequences, he said. "You're going to see brownouts. All of a sudden, it is going to be mud season on the Internet, where things will just be kind of slow and gooey."

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Two ways to send data?

[JockoManning]

Two ways? That's how I'm reading it:

'Mockapetris believes Vista's introduction will cause a surge in DNS traffic because the operating system supports two versions of the Internet Protocol, a technology standard used to send information over computer networks.'

[Lawgvr1955]

Could someone explain this please?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.ipv6.org/

See above URL

[ikka]

I don't think this will be an issue. Vista will probably suck in other ways though.

[Echo Talon]

I can download things a little faster when using Vista as compared to WinXP...

[Echo Talon]

I don't think this will be an issue. Vista will probably suck in other ways though.

yea cause MS is the devil... /sarcasm...

[jaredt112]

This won't be an issue. IPv6 has been in testing for a few years now, and is being phased in slowly. It's a good thing Vista supports it, because in the next few years it will be the standard and IPv4 will be a thing of the past.

If something does go wrong though, it will be on the DNS servers shoulders, because they knew this was coming.

[CedarDave]

PING!

[ShadowAce]

[KoRn]

"I don't think this will be an issue."

I don't think so either. I believe he's saying that some users will go to IPv6 while having IPv4 in place for backward compatibility. This really has nothing much to do with the operating system, except that Vista comes with IPv6 support out of the box. Of course, I could be completely wrong, it's 8AM lol.

[roaddog727]

It is entirely possible that the Vista will do both a DNS query using IPv4 and then repeat the query using IPv6 to build it's tables - thats the only way I would think that this would double the DNS traffic.

Thoughts?

[ikka]

The thing is that DNS queries are distributed. Every ISP runs a caching DNS server, which looks up the record once, then keeps a copy of the data around until it expires.

So if there are double-requests, the load will be on each ISP's servers, not on some main server that would serve as a bottleneck, or weak link. And the fact is that a DNS lookup is a pretty simple operation.

[KoRn]

"DNS query using IPv4 and then repeat the query using IPv6 to build it's tables"

That's how I understood it. He wasn't very specific.

[roaddog727]

"He wasn't very specific."

Probably does not know the difference between his a@@ and 3rd base.

[N3WBI3]

Some years back people thought we would run out of internet addresses normal addresses have four fields ranging from 0-255 and many are restricted or owned in large groups.

So they developed a new ip protocol which has a much larger number of addresses called ipv6 there are two major reasons it has not caught on.

Expensive network equipment at the time could not route (move around) ipv6 addresses and alternate solutions have been created (like network address translation). Network address translation is what allows a company of 500 people to only own a few ip addresses yet put every machine on the internet (if they desired to do so).

So now MS has decided to turn both ipv4 and ipv6 on by default so when you type freerepublic.com dns servers will get two request one for the ipv4 address and one for the ipv6 adderss. I would expect MS to turn off ipv6 by default before to long its just not needed yet..

[Still Thinking]

He probably means Vista will support both IPv4 and IPv6, the new standard with bigger URL's to give more available addresses.

[dubie]

I just installed Vista RC1 and I absolutely HATE IT. It is bloated and everything ha schanged. Tons of super gay picture menus, quick right clicks are not the same... easy ways of getting to options are gone... I switched to "classic" theme and that sucked just as bad... I deleted the install in less than 20 minutes... back to XP (I used acronis to make an image of old system)... anyway, I am totally disgusted with Vista and hate it BIG TIME!!!!

[VOA]

... I am totally disgusted with Vista and hate it BIG TIME!!!!

Just in case you are truly prophetic (and I don't doubt it)
I've created a new keyword:
KEYWORD: VISTASUCKS

[js1138]

I would expect MS to turn off ipv6 by default before to long its just not needed yet..

Most of the complaints will, in the long run, prove bogus. Not that early users won't have some pain.