Hurricane Electric IPv6 tunnel broker
IPv6 tunnel broker in Networking & smart home
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.
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.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 65%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fewer dropped routes, steadier connection
“ironically this tunnel actually improved my internet (because of the routes not being dropped, not the speed)”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “If IPv4 were land” “ironically this tunnel actually improved my internet”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “If IPv4 were land” “the roundtrip dropped to a steady 20ms”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Websites block or penalize tunnel traffic
“HE tunnel IP space is now sufficiently penalized as non-residential/office that I've had to turn it off anyway.”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Google Hits 50% IPv6” “being connected with an he.net tunnel gets you marked as undesirable traffic these days”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Google Hits 50% IPv6” “But you can't use HE tunnels because every website you visit will block you.”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Google Hits 50% IPv6” - Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “How to get a free .arpa domain”
- Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “If IPv4 were land”
Cogent peering blocks some destinations
“Cogent STILL refuses to transit-free IPv6 peer with HE”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Deutsche Telekom is violating Net Neutrality” “on top of additional latency, the HE Cogent peering dispute still makes it difficult to access services over IPv6”
Comment from 20 Jan 2026 in “IP Addresses Through 2025” “The main drawback seems to be that some networks still refuse to peer with them so not everything is reachable.”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Hurricane Electric (HE.NET) IPv6 tunnelbroker page offline due to expired domain” Poor upkeep, routing outages
“HE doesn't appear to be doing a very good job maintaining this infrastructure.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Hurricane Electric (HE.NET) tunnelbroker was serving a REVOKED cert yesterday” “HE stop routing to europe over ipv6 for an extended period of time”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Google Hits 50% IPv6”
What people said
24 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“he.net tunnels have terrible reputation”
“ironically this tunnel actually improved my internet (because of the routes not being dropped, not the speed)”
“ironically this tunnel actually improved my internet”
“HE doesn't appear to be doing a very good job maintaining this infrastructure.”
“Hurricane electric should sponsor more booths at colleges.”
“refuse to accept a sign-up because... I only had one MX record.”
“the roundtrip dropped to a steady 20ms”
“offering such a great service free of charge for anyone to learn about IPv6 networking”
“you treated like a bot if you use them to go to popular websites”
“when you're the server, that doesn't affect you”
“being connected with an he.net tunnel gets you marked as undesirable traffic these days”
“HE stop routing to europe over ipv6 for an extended period of time”
“But you can't use HE tunnels because every website you visit will block you.”
“HE tunnel IP space is now sufficiently penalized as non-residential/office that I've had to turn it off anyway.”
“Their www sub-subdomain is broken it seems.”
“You need to omit the "www" subdomain: https://ipv6.he.net”
“An HE.net tunnel has advantages, but they’re also quite bandwidth–constrained.”
“tunnelbroker traffic is mostly abuse or trying to circumvent georestrictions”
“The main drawback seems to be that some networks still refuse to peer with them so not everything is reachable.”
“Cogent STILL refuses to transit-free IPv6 peer with HE”
“on top of additional latency, the HE Cogent peering dispute still makes it difficult to access services over IPv6”
“you're probably better off with getting a Hurricane Electric tunnel”
“it is easy to configure, as intended”
“you are allowed to use the bandwidth you paid for without someone sticking their fingers in it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.