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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Unique Local IPv6 Generator</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="description" content="A history of this unitasking site, covering its origins, takeover by spammers, and later restoration.">
<link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="libraries/bootstrap/3.0.3/bootstrap.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/styles.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="header">
<ul class="nav nav-pills pull-right">
<li><a href="/">Generator</a></li>
<li><a href="faq.html">FAQ</a></li>
<li class="active"><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 class="text-muted">Unique Local IPv6 Generator</h3>
</div>
<div>
<p>
Hi, I'm <a href="https://chris.partridge.tech/">tweedge</a>.
</p>
<p>
While troubleshooting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6-to-IPv6_Network_Prefix_Translation">NPTv6</a> on my router, I stumbled across a dead link to <code>unique-local-ipv6.com</code>. Checking the <a href="https://web.archive.org/">Wayback Machine</a>, the site was preserved and functional, so I decided to restore it for others' convenience. As of today, there are ~100 dead links currently visible to Google pointed to it - including everything from GitHub issues, to the thread I was using to troubleshoot, to even <a href="http://events17.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/ipv6-lce.pdf">slides presented at the Linux Foundation</a>.
</p>
<p>
This page describes the history of the site, what I've done to restore it, and some minor errata.
</p>
<p>
Cheers :)
</p>
<h3 id="timeline">Timeline</h3>
<p>
A nearly complete history of this site is visible through the Wayback Machine archives:
</p>
<ul>
<li>The earliest archive on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130422102706/https://unique-local-ipv6.com/">22 April 2013</a> features this site with serverside rendering and a simpler layout.</li>
<li>On or before <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140209011327/http://unique-local-ipv6.com/">9 February 2014</a> the site was updated to use Bootstrap 3 and clientside JS for generating ULAs.</li>
<li>Before <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140209011327/http://unique-local-ipv6.com/">9 June 2017</a> the site begins throwing 404 Not Found errors. This is the beginning of the end - after the initial 404 capture, the site was never fixed.</li>
<li>The domain registration eventually lapses and unique-local-ipv6.com is bought by an online spammer <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190808073700/http://www.unique-local-ipv6.com/">sometime in 2019</a>, who run a Wordpress site filled with SEO shit and a $5 logo.</li>
<li>Said spammer continues filling the site with shit at least into <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200217225234/http://unique-local-ipv6.com/">February 2020</a> - this is likely autogenerated or scraped from other sites.</li>
<li>Sometime in 2020-2021, the spammer lets the domain lapse, and no more archives are saved. This was probably in 2020.</li>
<li>I found this site (now defunct, with the domain ownership lapsed) in a thread around January 2022, then decided to register and restore the website on 16 January 2022.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="restoration-process">Restoration Process</h3>
<p>
So, what did I change or add since the original site?
</p>
<ol>
<li>Bought the original domain, as it was available to register again</li>
<li>Pulled the original saved files for the <code>index.html</code> and <code>faq.html</code> pages from the Wayback Machine (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170602044844id_/http://unique-local-ipv6.com/">here's an example</a> of pulling only the original HTML from the Wayback Machine)</li>
<li>Removed comments from those HTML files inserted by the Wayback Machine</li>
<li>Fixed indentation and somewhat standardized formatting for the HTML files</li>
<li>Removed Google Analytics from the site</li>
<li>Fetched the sites' required dependencies and bundled them into a subdirectory ([email protected], and [email protected]) - this isn't necessary, just personal preference</li>
<li>Versioned the site in GitHub at <a href="https://github.com/tweedge/unique-local-ipv6">tweedge/unique-local-ipv6</a> so any feedback can be left easily, and future updates (not planning much) are trivial</li>
<li>Updating the FAQ and Index, fixing some minor spelling errors and ensuring content is accurate</li>
<li>Set up a storage bucket and BunnyCDN so the new copy of the site is available globally in a snap</li>
<li>Added a brief <a href="https://github.com/tweedge/unique-local-ipv6/blob/main/.github/workflows/publish.yml">GitHub Action</a> to update the site's edge storage bucket automatically when the source changes</li>
<li>Wrote this new <code>about.html</code> page describing the history of the site and what little was necessary to restore it</li>
</ol>
<p>
The process described above would work for anyone looking to restore a similarly clientside-only website from its early grave. However, please note that this is not solving any problems with site <em>preservation</em> - having a copy of this site nearly five years after it vanished off the internet is only possible because of the <a href="https://archive.org/">Internet Archive</a>. Please donate if you are able and willing - we're trashing our digital history every day, and there are very few organizations solving such fundamental problems.
</p>
<h3 id="improvements-and-contributors">Improvements & Contributors</h3>
<p>
As this site is versioned in GitHub, you can submit PRs to correct, update, or modify this site. To be totally honest: I set that up for myself, not anyone else, so it'd be harder to lose the files when changing systems etc. I was not expecting anyone to contribute fixes to a random site on the interwebs. I'm surprised and thankful to find that there are folks who give a damn, and not only found an issue but bothered to read all this to find the source and put in a correction!
</p>
<p>
Shoutout to these kind folks on GitHub who've improved this site:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/aadnehovda">aadnehovda</a> - fixed notation of IPv6 ULA prefix in faq.html (error made in 2015!)</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/NetaliDev">NetaliDev</a> - fixed typo in RFC number in index.html (error made in 2022!)</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/glyph">glyph</a> - made ULAs monospaced and added color to create more visual interest</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="post-spammer-owned-domains">Post-Spammer-Owned Domains</h3>
<p>
The original domain was available as the spammer (see <a href="#timeline">Timeline</a>) had let it lapse, so I purchased that to make the old links that I'd tried following useful again. This came with a minor issue - the domain had been flagged by Google as <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/100852436/why-i-am-getting-pure-spam-manual-action-on-my-blog?hl=en&msgid=100876983">"pure spam"</a> in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines, which lowers or removes it from Google's results. That's probably part of why the spammer let the domain registration lapse - no more clicks for them once Google figured out the ruse.
</p>
<p>
I found this out when I loaded the domain into Google Search Console - <a href="https://twitter.com/_tweedge/status/1482855205091745794">the violation</a> (and some other errata, like sitemaps and metadata about indexed pages) carries over to the new owner, and I had to file for it to be reviewed by Google's staff. After some back-and-forth with Google's support, I did get this violation removed.
</p>
<h3 id="privacy">Privacy</h3>
<p>
Requests to this site are logged for three days by BunnyCDN for abuse detection/prevention. All ULAs are generated clientside and are not logged by this site.
</p>
<p>
I commit that as long as this site is operated by me, it will never perform clientside tracking of viewers, and will never serve advertisements.
</p>
<h3 id="original-copyright">Original Copyright</h3>
<p>
As noted in the footer, I (tweedge) am not the original author of this site. Unfortunately, since the original copyright was nebulous ("Copyright 2013 unique-local-ipv6.com") it's not clear who produced or owned the source code for this site. Based on historical WHOIS records, this may have been Manuel Badzong or another affiliate of ANDEV GMBH, as both those entities showed up in WHOIS records for this site at the time of its initial registration.
</p>
<p>
I am assuming "no news is good news," but if the original rightsholder contacts me with any objection (and proof of their authorship/ownership), I am certainly happy to address their concerns.
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately I am also not sure how copying/redsitributing this should work for anyone looking to make a derivative of this site, and cannot advise you in this matter. To avoid concerns like this in my own work, I am dedicating substantially more of my written works to the Creative Commons and encourage others to do the same if their values are aligned with that.
</p>
</div>
<div class="footer">
<p class="pull-right">
Original © 2013 unique-local-ipv6.com, updates by <a href="https://chris.partridge.tech/">tweedge</a> and <a href="about.html#improvements-and-contributors">contributors</a>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<script src="libraries/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="libraries/bootstrap/3.0.3/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
</body>
</html>