# Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel broker

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel broker and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free IPv6 tunnel broker that gives networks IPv6 connectivity and helps people learn IPv6, though the most common caveat is that Cogent refuses peering, leaving some destinations unreachable.

## Why people recommend it

- Fewer dropped routes, steadier connection (3 comments): "ironically this tunnel actually improved my internet (because of the routes not being dropped, not the speed)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50292665)) "ironically this tunnel actually improved my internet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50290765)) "the roundtrip dropped to a steady 20ms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49574392))

## What people warn about

- Websites block or penalize tunnel traffic (5 comments): "HE tunnel IP space is now sufficiently penalized as non-residential/office that I've had to turn it off anyway." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617505)) "being connected with an he.net tunnel gets you marked as undesirable traffic these days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48618500)) "But you can't use HE tunnels because every website you visit will block you." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617584))
- Cogent peering blocks some destinations (3 comments): "Cogent STILL refuses to transit-free IPv6 peer with HE" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46753183)) "on top of additional latency, the HE Cogent peering dispute still makes it difficult to access services over IPv6" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46695431)) "The main drawback seems to be that some networks still refuse to peer with them so not everything is reachable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47337361))
- Poor upkeep, routing outages (2 comments): "HE doesn't appear to be doing a very good job maintaining this infrastructure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201247)) "HE stop routing to europe over ipv6 for an extended period of time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48618349))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://tunnelbroker.net/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel broker", https://hackerapproved.com/p/hurricane-electric-ipv6-tunnel-broker/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).