Windows Server 2003 RRAS and ipv6 -> NOT?!

[abovetec]

Well, I am giving up. It would appear to me that since I don't have a typical router, I am not going to be able to use IPv6 yet. The Routing and Remote Access router in Windows Server 2003 is terrible. It is poorly designed, and I wish it was half as smart as a Linux or BSD router. Reading through the Technet docs once or chasing some discrepancy Microsoft basically says, "If you want to do THAT, buy a REAL ROUTER and ditch RRAS" in not so many words. Its firewall and interface is dumb to say the least.

But it is clearly not able to run IPv6 on top of its other faults. It looks like the underlying network layer is compatible, seeing that the "route" command is IPv6 capable. But without native support in the RRAS snap-in, there just isn't any way to make it all go together. Using the typical netsh commands would work if I was conected to a router I suppose, but when W2k3 is the router and my Internet is a dial-up networking interface, it looks hopeless.

Here is one clue: You cannot choose the IPv6 Protocol for a RRAS Network Interface. (You can for a regular interface. This is the thing that you can install in w2k3 but there is no "properties" button like Vista/W2k8.) That seems to be hopeless. Maybe a regedit will allow it?

Well, here is where someone could help. Perhaps there is some way of getting the route command to use my RRAS interface as the place to transmit the tunnel ipv4 packets? Hmm, not if the interface never shows up in the ipv6 section when you type:

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c:\>route print

All I see are these listed:

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Configured Tunnel Interface
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet (My LAN card)
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
6to4 Pseudo-Interface
Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface (IP of my RRAS global IP, YEAH!)
Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface (169.254.x.x IP)
Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface (192.168.x.x local IP)
Loopback Pseudo-Interface

I'm lost. How to I make the tunnel stuff go over a missing interface? Why would M$ not implement routing in a normal way when the rest of the netwrok stack seems to work?

[cholzhauer]

Why not ditch 2k3 and just set up a Linux/BSD/*nix VM and use that?

[abovetec]

Why not ditch 2k3 and just set up a Linux/BSD/*nix VM and use that?

The dial-up networking support in Windows Server 2003 was marginal for the hardware I need to use. The drivers work, but just barely.

The support in UNIX/Linux is almost non-existent. When I set it up, no drivers existed for the FreeBSD box I was planning. I never resolved that, so I used my file server W2k3 for the modem card. I don't have a UNIX server now at all in the office, not that it would help if I did. I think a Linux box might run the card, but this would be its only purpose.

I will likely upgrade to 2k8.

[cholzhauer]

Fair enough.

I'm not that familiar with RRAS in 2k3, so I'm not much of a help, sorry.  Hopefully someone else can give you a hand.