Add IPv6 availability check in Site Health

[josklever]

As IP4 should be replaced by IPv6, WordPress sites should also be available via IPv6. It would help if a check could be added to the Site Health section to check if the site can be reached over IPv6. If not, an instruction could be given to contact the webhost.

[Clorith]

I'm not quite sure what the benefit to end users would be in this situation, could you elaborate a bit more on this?

[josklever]

IPv6 should be implemented on every host. By giving the website owner the signal that IPv6 is not yet supported, should direct them to their webhost, asking for IPv6 on the server.
As IPv4 has run out of new addresses, there will be more and more people over the world that can only access websites via IPv6, so it's not only just bringing the server technology up-to-date, but maybe even some accessibility improvement.
So this would not be a critical issue, but at least an improvement.

[zodiac1978]

Related #60619 (Adding a DNS section)

[dd32]

I don't personally think IPv6 is a requirement for a website; or even should be highly suggested.

Using IPv4 is not inherently "wrong", it's a hosting choice, and one that WordPress end-users have very little control over.

[josklever]

@dd32 Websites and webhosts should more and more offer modern standards as I already explained. On ​https://en.internet.nl/faqs/ipv6/ you can find more articles.
In the western world most people have internet via IPv4, where IPv6 is just an extra "for the future", but more and more internet users only have IPv6 so they can't access services that only are connected via IPv4. So it's good for accessibility, inclusion etc. to promote IPv6.

[dd32]

Replying to josklever:

dd32 Websites and webhosts should more and more offer modern standards as I already explained. On ​https://en.internet.nl/faqs/ipv6/ you can find more articles.
In the western world most people have internet via IPv4, where IPv6 is just an extra "for the future", but more and more internet users only have IPv6 so they can't access services that only are connected via IPv4. So it's good for accessibility, inclusion etc. to promote IPv6.

WordPress.org is one of the many services which are not available natively via IPv6, but this doesn't mean it's inaccessible to IPv6 users.
A lot of the "western world" mobile networks use IPv6 natively, and almost all (AFAIK) in emerging countries. It's incredibly common for DNS64 / IPv4 gateways to be included in a IPv6 rollout for that reason.

IPv6 isn't intended on being deployed as an island, It's supposed to have a method to be able to connect to IPv4 resources; just not the other way around (IPv4 connecting to IPv6-only services).

[josklever]

@dd32 I don't understand your comments, because it looks like you don't want the internet to adopt IPv6 more. As I already explained, this is not an urgent issue, but could definitely help to make webhosts aware they should improve their servers/network.

So if you want to boycot IPv6, just say so and explain why. Or accept that we need to improve the internet and WordPress can help with that.

[zodiac1978]

I think this shouldn't be about nagging people to ask their host to update to IPv6. This is not the role WordPress should have. This could be something for the hosting team. Maybe they want to put it on their recommendation page/handbook.

For access IPv4/IPv6, there are indeed transition mechanisms:
​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6#Transition_mechanisms

If IPv6 is available or not is a question of the used operating system, firmware (at home and at the provider level) and maybe load balancers etc. - so nothing which is commonly replaced immediately, but will over time.

But sometimes things are odd for the end user, and they don't know why, and it would help to know if IPv4 or IPv6 is used for the domain to debug an issue.

That's why I think this information should be displayed (see my related ticket above) as a first step. If things change, and we want to get people to better use IPv6 for any upcoming reason, a check could be easily added then.

[josklever]

I never said it should be nagging users with critical issues, but we could start with a low priority/informative issue, that the site could improve by having the webhost activate IPv6 to become part of the modern internet.

Just like other new technologies or versions (think of PHP 8), many people like to wait until they have no other choice and then they start to panic. So this is only a signal that they can already start to improve things. The fact that there are systems in place that keep the old stuff still working, should not be a reason to do nothing.