Supporting email over IPv6, part 1 – An introduction

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One of the important projects I have been working on for the past few months is supporting email over IPv6. Long time readers of this blog (all four of you) will remember that last year I wrote a series of posts on email over IPv6:

Part 1 – Introduction

Part 2 – Why we can’t use IP blocklists in IPv6

Part 3 – A solution: Whitelists

Part 4 – Population of the whitelists

Part 5 – Removals, key differences, and standards

In case you can’t tell by the above, the backbone of the solution was using IPv6 whitelists and maintaining a list good senders, and then sharing that list amongst the major receivers.

I now entirely refudiate* that idea.

We now have a new solution in mind. I can’t claim credit for inventing any of it. The basic algorithm was developed in close participation with other bright minds in the industry, and the performance issues are addressed and acknowledged by people within my own company.

The new solution is better than the previous one: it is more scalable, easier to manage, and builds upon what is already there in IPv4. However, unlike the previous solution, there is more uncertainty involved with regards to its performance when it comes to running the service.

This series of blog posts will go into the problem of email over IPv6, a technical solution to the problem, and technical considerations into implementing that solution.

Stay tuned for more.

* It’s a word, look it up.