Struggling to set up an IPv6-enabled WiFi access point

aleph · #1 25th February 2012, 04:46 PM

Hi,

I have created an WiFi access point using hostapd (WPA2 and other WiFi stuff such as 802.11n QoS, etc.), dnsmasq (DNS & DHCP) and shorewall (IPv4 NAT and routing). This is mainly used to feed my Android phone with Internet access.

I also have an /64 IPv6 block assigned for my disposal. It would be too much a waste to just serve my computers so I'd like to give my phone IPv6 connection.

With ipv6 it is supposed that you can get rid of the NAT stuff and just do automatic configuration. This should not be a problem since you have radvd. The problem is there's hardly any easy way to make it live with hostapd --> see this nasty bug here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=729183

Also, with IPv6 autoconfiguration the connected devices can automatically figure out routing, right? I did at one point get the phone to join my /64 block with (surprisingly) two globally-routable IPv6 addresses assigned. However, even if with ipv6 forwarding enabled in the kernel settings it seems not able to use IPv6 at all. This should not be a limitation of the phone browser app because I saw it issuing AAAA name queries over the connection... I guess it must be somewhere in my confused settings.

In general, what I need is some guideline in implementing an IPv6 access point -- addressing, routing, and the 802.11 wireless stuff. If you have your story to say, please share

thanks!

PS. My wifi board is a RealTek RTL8192CE, which is known to be plagued by the bug (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=790275) that sometimes just kill the radio competely. Perhaps I'm unwise experimenting this cutting-edge, IPv6 stuff using such an unreliable thing. However that's all I can get now..

mdlowry · #2 26th February 2012, 05:53 PM

If radvd has a bug preventing use, you could try a stateful configuration (ie DHCP for IPv6). Not done this myself, so you would need to check into that.

aleph · #3 28th February 2012, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mdlowry

If radvd has a bug preventing use, you could try a stateful configuration (ie DHCP for IPv6). Not done this myself, so you would need to check into that.

Thank you. I searched around a bit for it and learned there has been quite a lot of debate of stateless vs stateful configurations. For now, DHCPv6 looks like the short-term solution I need.