Internet service providers, whether mobile or fixed, always find new ways to disappoint users, and one of them is their slowness in implementing new standards or protocols. Of course, it's not always their fault, but users deserve to know all the details about the state of their connection, and one way to learn them is through the Internet.nl portal, which performs IPv6 support and DNSSEC validation tests, among other things.
The State of Your Connection
Suppose you haven't changed anything in your configuration and connect to the Internet just as the provider set it up. How good and secure is that connection? The answer could be disappointing. In my case, the provider gave me a modem with ten years on its shoulders. Ten.
Perhaps a mix of simplicity and robustness allows it to keep working today, but with the disturbing fortune I'm paying to browse (and by extension, work), honestly I expected more. Of course, that's the situation of the hardware on my side, and it's hard to imagine what happens on the other side... but the Internet.nl portal helps us get a more solid idea.
What Internet.nl Checks
Basically, the efforts of this portal focus on the use of IPv6 and the validation of the DNSSEC specification that the IETF develops. The deployment of DNSSEC has been chaotic at minimum, and it's most likely not enabled, but Internet.nl explains why it's relevant and what the risks associated with its absence are.
The case of IPv6 is much more publicized: the new protocol is the definitive solution to the lack of addresses in IPv4, however, I still don't know anyone who has received a static IPv6 address from their provider. My combination of modem and router can do little against the protocol, but if your hardware is up to the task, why not make a call?
The other two tests of Internet.nl are for websites and email addresses. There you'll see the intervention of other protocols like DKIM, SPF and DMARC, all with the same goal: that your browsing sessions and sending emails develop securely. Needless to say, my results were very poor, but you have to check other aspects too. IPv6 may be disabled at the operating system level, and DNS servers probably use something other than DNSSEC, like in the case of DNSCrypt on OpenDNS.
