IPv6 Tunnel Broker daemon for Mac OS X

Because the Internet is running out of room, we will see more and more services only available through IPv6. An IPv6 tunnel makes it possible to access the IPv6 side of the Internet when the current internet service provider doesn't come with native support (yet?). This project aims to make it easier to setup and use such tunnel on Mac OS X.

Right now, tunnels were only tested with Hurricane Electric's Tunnel Broker service, but it should work with other providers too.

• What kind of tunnel is this?

This project makes creates 6in4 tunnels using gif interfaces (which support is built-in OSX).

In the project directory:

$ sudo make install

This copies the ipv6tun executable to /usr/local and a configuration file at /usr/local/etc/ipv6tun.conf. It also take care of registering with the system in order to keep the tunnel working in case of network change:

• Wi-Fi toggle
• Ethernet (un)plug
• DHCP lease expiry
• etc

The configuration is done with a single configuration file. Relevant information should be provided by your tunnel broker.

# In /usr/local/etc/ipv6tun.conf
ipv6_wan_address=<put_here_the_client_ipv6_address>
ipv6_default_route=<put_here_the_server_ipv6_address>
remote_ipv4_address=<put_here_the_server_ipv4_address>
tunnelbroker_update_enabled=no # Put to "yes" to enable feature
tunnelbroker_tunnel_id=000000
tunnelbroker_account_name=somebody
tunnelbroker_update_key=secret

Once configuration is done tunnel can be made up or down with respectively $ ipv6tun up or $ ipv6tun down. Tunnel status persist across reboots.

ipv6tun can take care of updating the client side IPv4 address of the tunnel on the provider side. This feature is optional and only supported with Hurricane Electric at the moment. Support for SixXS is being considered.