host-identifier with IPv6

[Ted Lemon]

On Mar 2, 2009, at 4:30 PM, Sten Carlsen wrote:
> So why do you think this DUID would be the same unchanged during a
> device's lifetime? I upgrade my OSes regularly and for several  
> reasons I
> usually do so with a full new install, not an upgrade. Quite often I
> also switch the disk for a bigger one.
>
> The way I see this is that I will have to redo my DNS settings every
> time, since the DUID is new, the DNS will point to something old and  
> no
> more existing.
>
> Why did you want to select something significantly less stable than  
> MAC
> address?

This is a contrived example.   Of course in this case the MAC address  
is more stable.   On the other hand, when I get a new Macintosh, I  
typically do a brain transplant from the old Macintosh.   So for me,  
the MAC address changes, and the DUID is stable.

> I still think most people, maybe specially the ISP guys want a label
> (with a bar code) on the box that they can scan when the ship the
> package the their customer. Why would they want anything that only  
> gets
> initialised once the power is turned on? How do you expect them to
> capture that info once the device has been put into the mail?

This is just not the way things normally go.   Normally you go down to  
Best Buy and buy a device, and you plug it in, and because it follows  
the DOCSIS spec, it Just Works.   It's a lot of extra work for the ISP  
to track the Mac address of the device, and it's usually unnecessary  
since you're going to be more reliably identified by your circuit ID.