Prolixium dot com: News >> Blog >> Sites That SHOULD Have AAAAs

Although World IPv6 Launch has come and gone, there are some high-profile sites that still haven't published AAAA records. In my opinion, some of these sites really should be ashamed of themselves, at this point:

Slashdot:

% ipin slashdot.org.
  A record #1
4 Address: 216.34.181.45
4 PTR: slashdot.org.
4 Prefix: 216.32.0.0/14
4 Origin: AS3561 [SAVVIS - Savvis]
% ipin www.slashdot.org.
  A record #1
4 Address: 216.34.181.48
4 PTR: star.slashdot.org.
4 Prefix: 216.32.0.0/14
4 Origin: AS3561 [SAVVIS - Savvis]

Slashdot used to be a geeky news aggregation site back in the late 90s and early 2000s. In the last several years it has lost a little bit of its steam but still provides links to some interesting articles and attracts humorous comments. All the geeks out there should really be wondering why AOL is dual-stacked but Slashdot isn't. I'm sure Savvis offers IPv6 transit.

Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT):

% ipin mit.edu.
  A record #1
4 Address: 18.9.22.69
4 PTR: WEB.MIT.EDU.
4 Prefix: 18.0.0.0/8
4 Origin: AS3 [MIT-GATEWAYS - Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
(dax:20:33)% ipin www.mit.edu.
  A record #1
4 Address: 18.9.22.169
4 PTR: WWW.MIT.EDU.
4 Prefix: 18.0.0.0/8
4 Origin: AS3 [MIT-GATEWAYS - Massachusetts Institute of Technology]

Operating AS3 and having a worldwide reputation as an excellent science and technology school, it's a bit disappointing that MIT doesn't have an IPv6-accessible website.

CERN:

% ipin cern.ch.
  A record #1
4 Address: 137.138.144.169
4 PTR: webr8.cern.ch.
4 Prefix: 137.138.0.0/16
4 Origin: AS513 [CERN CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research]
% ipin www.cern.ch.
  A record #1
4 Address: 137.138.144.168
4 PTR: webr7.cern.ch.
4 Prefix: 137.138.0.0/16
4 Origin: AS513 [CERN CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research]

The first web server software, CERN httpd was written at, well, CERN. It's 2012, the nuclear research organization's website should really be dual-stacked. Even more embarrassing is that the CERN website is apparently powered by Microsoft IIS!

Apple:

% ipin www.apple.com.
  A record #1
4 Address: 72.246.213.15
4 PTR: a72-246-213-15.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com.
4 Prefix: 72.246.212.0/22
4 Origin: AS16625 [AKAMAI-ASN1 Akamai Technologies European AS]
% ipin apple.com.    
  A record #1
4 Address: 17.172.224.47
4 PTR: apple.com.
4 PTR: itunesops.com.
4 PTR: st11p01ww-apple.apple.com.
4 PTR: asto.re.
4 Prefix: 17.168.0.0/13
4 Origin: AS714 [APPLE Apple Inc]
  A record #2
4 Address: 17.149.160.49
4 PTR: mammals.org.
4 PTR: myapple.net.
...
4 PTR: mach-os.net.
4 PTR: macmate.com.
4 Prefix: 17.148.0.0/14
4 Origin: AS714 [APPLE Apple Inc]

Apple really needs to get their act together with IPv6. OS X has suffered from address selection and happy eyeballs problems for the last few releases (maybe they're finally fixed in 10.8) and only recently supports a DHCPv6 client. iOS doesn't seem much better, either. Apple dual-stacked their site for World IPv6 Day back in 2011 but that's about it. It really shouldn't be that difficult to get IPv6 accessibility for their www CNAME since it's already powered by Akamai.

Twitter:

% ipin twitter.com.
  A record #1
4 Address: 199.59.149.230
4 PTR: www4.twitter.com.
4 Prefix: 199.59.148.0/22
4 Origin: AS13414 [TWITTER-NETWORK - Twitter Inc.]
  A record #2
4 Address: 199.59.148.10
4 PTR: r-199-59-148-10.twttr.com.
4 Prefix: 199.59.148.0/22
4 Origin: AS13414 [TWITTER-NETWORK - Twitter Inc.]
  A record #3
4 Address: 199.59.148.82
4 PTR: r-199-59-148-82.twttr.com.
4 Prefix: 199.59.148.0/22
4 Origin: AS13414 [TWITTER-NETWORK - Twitter Inc.]
% ipin www.twitter.com.
  A record #1
4 Address: 199.59.148.82
4 PTR: r-199-59-148-82.twttr.com.
4 Prefix: 199.59.148.0/22
4 Origin: AS13414 [TWITTER-NETWORK - Twitter Inc.]
  A record #2
4 Address: 199.59.149.230
4 PTR: www4.twitter.com.
4 Prefix: 199.59.148.0/22
4 Origin: AS13414 [TWITTER-NETWORK - Twitter Inc.]
  A record #3
4 Address: 199.59.148.10
4 PTR: r-199-59-148-10.twttr.com.
4 Prefix: 199.59.148.0/22
4 Origin: AS13414 [TWITTER-NETWORK - Twitter Inc.]

Twitter has been the odd one out when it comes to social networking sites and IPv6. Facebook and Google have both been big proponents of IPv6, but Twitter has shown no interest in it. Their autonomous system isn't even advertising their IPv6 prefix (2620:fe::/48), yet!