Setting up a Sitecom X6 router with a HE IPv6 tunnel

Here's an instruction how to setup the Sitecom WLR-6100 X6 N900 router with a Hurricane Electric IPv6 Tunnel. It will probably also work with other Sitecom routers, like the X4.

The trick is to use a Routed /48 tunnel.

In short: Request a tunnel with routed /48 from Hurricane Electric and use just three parameters to set up 6RD IPv6 in your Sitecom.

The longer description:

1. Upgrade your Sitecom router to firmware 2.4 (or higher)
2. Make sure your Sitecom is ping-able from Internet
3. Create an account on http://www.tunnelbroker.net/
4. Request a tunnel on http://www.tunnelbroker.net/ . Choose a tunnel provider near you
5. On that tunnel page, request the “Routed /48”
6. From the tunnel page, the following items are relevant:
1. Server IPv4 Address
2. Client IPv4 Addres (=your own public IPv4 address)
3. Routed /48
7. In the Sitecom, click on "Internet Settings", then "IPv6 Settings". Choose "6RD" in the firs drop down option
8. Then fill out the Sitecom form as in the screendump below

It should now work. So, with your laptop/PC, go to http://test-ipv6.com/ to see if you have IPv6 connectivity. That site should say something like "Your IPv6 address on the public Internet appears to be 2001:470:... (HURRICANE - Hurricane Electric, Inc.)".


Screendump (click for larger image):

The throughput over Wifi is quite impressive: I get 11,3 MB/s, thus about 113 Mbps. (on my 300/300 Mbps Internet connection). See this output:


sander@flappie:~$ wget -6 http://ftp.belnet.be/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/precise/ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso -O /dev/null
--2013-04-19 16:32:06--  http://ftp.belnet.be/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/precise/ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso
Resolving ftp.belnet.be (ftp.belnet.be)... 2001:6a8:3c80:2::21
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be (ftp.belnet.be)|2001:6a8:3c80:2::21|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 726970368 (693M) [application/x-iso9660-image]
Saving to: ‘/dev/null’

 6% [==>                                                ] 49.882.045  11,5MB/s  eta 61s    
28% [=============>                                     ] 206.782.525 11,5MB/s  eta 45s    
71% [===================================>               ] 520.086.461 11,2MB/s  eta 18s    
100%[==================================================>] 726.970.368 11,3MB/s   in 61s    

2013-04-19 16:33:08 (11,3 MB/s) - ‘/dev/null’ saved [726970368/726970368]

sander@flappie:~$ 

I can't test the IPv6 speed of wired ethernet as the Sitecom becomes completely unreachable with 3 seconds when do that. So I would say that's a bug in the Sitecom.

Update: with another laptop (HP with Windows7, instead of Samsung with Ubuntu), IPv6 over wired ethernet does not lock up the Sitecom, and the speed is impressive:



C:\>wget-1.14.exe -6 http://ftp.belnet.be/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/precise/ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso
--2013-04-19 16:57:58--  http://ftp.belnet.be/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/precise/ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso
Resolving ftp.belnet.be (ftp.belnet.be)... 2001:6a8:3c80:2::21
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be (ftp.belnet.be)|2001:6a8:3c80:2::21|:80... connected
.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 726970368 (693M) [application/x-iso9660-image]
Saving to: 'ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.1'

100%[======================================>] 726,970,368 24.1MB/s   in 29s

2013-04-19 16:58:27 (24.1 MB/s) - 'ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.1' saved [726970368/726970368]


C:\>

So ... that's 24.1 MB/s, or 241 Mbps...! FWIW: tested on a 300/300 Mbps Caiway FttH connection.

Update 2: with the same laptop (HP) with Ubuntu, the speed is even higher: 34.1 MB/s, or 341 Mbps. Kudo's to the Sitecom router for handling the IPv6 at this great speed.


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ wget -6 http://ftp.belnet.be/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/precise/ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso -O /dev/null
--2013-04-19 18:24:42-- http://ftp.belnet.be/ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/precise/ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso
Resolving ftp.belnet.be (ftp.belnet.be)... 2001:6a8:3c80:2::21
Connecting to ftp.belnet.be (ftp.belnet.be)|2001:6a8:3c80:2::21|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 726970368 (693M) [application/x-iso9660-image]
Saving to: ‘/dev/null’

39% [==============> ] 289,894,144 36.7MB/s eta 13s
79% [=============================> ] 577,715,328 37.2MB/s eta 5s
100%[======================================>] 726,970,368 27.6MB/s in 20s

2013-04-19 18:25:02 (34.1 MB/s) - ‘/dev/null’ saved [726970368/726970368]

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$