I do have to ask - what's a tunnel broker, aren't you worried about security of those devices and - is it really that useful?
Edit - if it is really that useful, is it not instead the death of cloud storage?
Edit - if it is really that useful, is it not instead the death of cloud storage?
In particular, it is better than other VPN/port forwarding type solutions because it works transparently and universally. It works on your phone (where VPN can be more tricky). It works in environments where you aren't allowed to install special relay software. It works when you are a guest somewhere else without them having to change their network setup.
As for cloud services... yes and no. In a world with direct addressing you open up many opportunities for innovation in the home cloud appliance market. However, many cloud services are made affordable because they can leverage shared infrastructure, sell usage metadata, or add and remove capacity instantly. Whether home based solutions could be competitive in price and reliability without those abilities. I see some categories of service that it makes sense for, others, less so.
Security is a concern, yes, but one that can and should be addressed by good security tools and practices (firewalls, automatic security updates, good backups, not running services you don't use, etc) not by crippling your network with NAT.
And yes, a good point about the reliability of cloud services - but still at 50 bucks for 2 TB and iCloud costing me 20 bucks a month I think Shared infrastructure savings have a long way to go !
Re: security. Cloud services aren't doing a lot better. They are repeatedly broken into and have huge password lists stolen, many have governments have direct programs for extracting datas from them, and someone else can call up their customer support reps and practically ask for your password. Many effective security best practices amount to obscurity (change ssh port number). Large central services are very attractive and lucrative to hack.
Because of this I would suggest that if you go router shopping that you should choose a model that supports IPv6 rather than not, even if you don't necessary care which you will end up using. Get a model with a good IPv6 firewall that you can tell to block all incoming connections.
Lastly, I think it is dangerous for "casual users" to say things like "I don't care about direct addressing of devices at home". I firmly believe that universal direct addressing will result in new innovation that might change your mind. :)
A tunnel broker is like VPN/proxy that allows you to connect to the IPv6 web over IPv4.
It adds latency to my connection (because all my IPv6 data goes from me, over IPv4 to the tunnel broker who then routes my data the rest of the way to where it's going), but for me it's worth it.
In terms of security, my machines are run largely the same as any server: locked down, except when for the things I need. It helps that I only do this for *nix devices as well.
Assuming he is having a firewall configured on his gateway then it is not any different from security standpoint than being behind a NAT.
For example in my university, all computers have a public IPv4 address, it still does not mean you can connect to them from outside, but if you need to open a port to the world you don't need to deal with all that NAT crap.
Cloud storage is really nice when your home PC is switched off, or a hard drive crashes, or your computer catches on fire. Other than those sorts of problems, BitTorrent Sync can already do pretty much everything you want over IPv4.