Feature Request: IPv6 Only Support

[Twist of Kain]

Hi Steam. 2021 here. Time for the client to work with IPv6 only networks. I'm tired of maintaining a dual stack setup mainly just for my games now that most sites I care about are working with IPv6 only (short DuckDuckGo. I should probably rib them some to).

[Start_Running]

Styeam doesn't control the netcode of the games on it. It operates IPv6 and IPv5 in parallell.
It will use which ever your system and the game both support. I.e if the ganme supports IPv6 and your systyem supports IPv6 . it willl use IPv6. SImplle as that.

If your game only supports ower protocols then it will use those llower protocols .

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Steam itself already does. Games supporting it is another story altogether.

[Reuben]

Steam should implement a 4in6 & 6in4 tunneling function for old games, to pre-empt the move to native IPv6.

[Aya]

Don't think it'll happen since people still play CS1.6, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and CS Source.

[Crashed]

Are there any ISPs that aren't dual stack?

[Start_Running]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crashed:

Are there any ISPs that aren't dual stack?

As far as I know, nope. Because every ISP knows that there are some networks out there lagging. It doesn't cost much if anything to dual stack.

[Crashed]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Start_Running:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crashed:

Are there any ISPs that aren't dual stack?

As far as I know, nope. Because every ISP knows that there are some networks out there lagging. It doesn't cost much if anything to dual stack.

And if they are short on IPv4 addresses then carrier grad e NAT is a thing, and many games can work around it, as long as at least one node has a dedicated IP to host the server. In addition most VPS services often used to host game servers are dual stack.

[Thesoxplace]

my isp only issues ipv4, so what now? there are other networks that are not ready for ipv6. my personal internal network is ready, but the isp is not. and I have 1gbit down and 35mbit up cable connection, so. it's something else they are not ready to do.

[Twist of Kain]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Start_Running:

Styeam doesn't control the netcode of the games on it. It operates IPv6 and IPv5 in parallell.
It will use which ever your system and the game both support. I.e if the ganme supports IPv6 and your systyem supports IPv6 . it willl use IPv6. SImplle as that.

If your game only supports ower protocols then it will use those llower protocols .

What I was ribbing them about was when I disabled IPv4 on my network completely to check how well they supported IPv6, the actual Steam client flat out wouldn't connect. I then re-enabled IPv4 again and the Steam client connected without issue. Double-checked PC, router, etc. I'm wondering if somehow related to a DNS entry their not maintaining a AAAA record for, but haven't gotten bored enough to dig into it.

[Satoru]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Crashed:

Are there any ISPs that aren't dual stack?

A Polish ISP somehow broke Vermintide2 due to cutting off ipv4 packets in their stack

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermintide/comments/8vw9vu/psa_connectivity_errors_are_not_the_game_fault_it/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

[nullable]

I don't think a games store needs to be on the cutting edge as far as IPv support. Let's talk when Chrome no longer supports IPv4, or Microsoft, or NIC manufacturers.

[Twist of Kain]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Snakub Plissken:

I don't think a games store needs to be on the cutting edge as far as IPv support. Let's talk when Chrome no longer supports IPv4, or Microsoft, or NIC manufacturers.

I think that's where my view differs. I don't see IPv6 as cutting edge anymore. Also, if I disable IPv4 completely, Chrome, Microsoft Windows, Linux, my NIC and tons of other devices in my house keep working without issue as far as the protocol is concerned. The Steam client would load up, but then try to connect to their servers and stop there. By that, I have to conclude that it's most likely their servers and maybe their DNS records as well that's not setup for IPv6 yet. I guess, technically, the client itself may be IPv6 ready, but the client experience as a whole wasn't when I checked.

[nullable]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Twist of Kain:

I think that's where my view differs. I don't see IPv6 as cutting edge anymore.

It is the newest standard though.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Twist of Kain:

Also, if I disable IPv4 completely, Chrome, Microsoft Windows, Linux, my NIC and tons of other devices in my house keep working without issue as far as the protocol is concerned.

They still support IPv4 too. And so far as I know there's nothing particularly wrong with continued use of IPv4. I mean the whole point of IPv6 was concern over running out of IP addresses, and if enough people have adopted IPv6 and new devices tend to use it that really does reduce the pressure to switch over.

Sometimes that's just the way IT works. Only upgrade when you need to. As opposed to always upgrading to stay current. And sometimes that's done case by case within the same organization.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Twist of Kain:

The Steam client would load up, but then try to connect to their servers and stop there. By that, I have to conclude that it's most likely their servers and maybe their DNS records as well that's not setup for IPv6 yet. I guess, technically, the client itself may be IPv6 ready, but the client experience as a whole wasn't when I checked.

The client uses Chromium as its base, so I'd expect it to be IPv6 aware. I'd agree your theory is probably pretty close or on the right track.

[PenguinPower 🐧]

It's now 2023 and the fact that this still doesn't work with the latest client on a fully-updated Win 11 install is a bit of a disappointment.

I know the online features of some legacy games are hardly going to support running on v6-only networks, but I don't really expect that. At a bare minimum I would expect the Steam *client* to be able to work without legacy IPv4 present and actually let me install games.

Any movement on this one from Valve?

[Mad Scientist]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von PenguinPower 🐧:

It's now 2023 and the fact that this still doesn't work with the latest client on a fully-updated Win 11 install is a bit of a disappointment.

I know the online features of some legacy games are hardly going to support running on v6-only networks, but I don't really expect that. At a bare minimum I would expect the Steam *client* to be able to work without legacy IPv4 present and actually let me install games.

Any movement on this one from Valve?

Few things;

Last Post: May 18, 2021 @ 5:57am

Secondly; What do you mean it "doesn't work"?

There's a service within windows that lets it translate addresses of IPv4 and IPv6, so unless you have that disabled and ipv4 disabled there should be no issues.