Gary Feldman: The Day The Routers Died

A long long time ago, I can still remember
When my laptop could connect elsewhere

And I tell you all there was a day
The network card I threw away
Had a purpose - and worked for you and me..

But eighteen years completely wasted
With each address we've aggregated
The tables overflowing
The traffic just stopped flowing...

And now we're bearing all the scars and
All my traceroutes showing stars
The packets would travel faster in cars
The day the routers died

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I s'pose we'd better give it a try
S'pose we'd better give it a try

Now did you write an RFC
That dictated how we all should be?
Did we listen like we should that day?
Now were you back at RIPE 54 where we
Heard the same things months before
And the people new they have to change their ways
And we knew that all the ISPs
Could be future-proof for centuries
But that was then not now
Spent too much time playing WoW
Oh there was a time we sat on IRC
Made jokes on how this day would be
Now there's no more use for TCP
The day the routers died

So we sing it
Bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I s'pose we'd better give it a try
S'pose we'd better give it a try

I remember those old days I mourn
Sitting in my room, downloading porn
Yeah, that's how it used to be
When the packets flow from A to B
Via routers that could talk IP
There was data that could be exchanged
Between you and me
Oh but I could see you all ignore the fact
We'd fill up IPv4
But we all lost the nerve
And we got what we deserved!
And while we threw our network kit away
And wished we'd heard the things they said
Put all our lives in disarray
The day the routers died

We will sing it
Bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I s'pose we'd better give it a try
I s'pose we'd better give it a try

So a man with whom I used to peer
Asked him to rescue my career
He just sighed and turned away
I went down to the Net caf
That I used to visit everyday
But the man there said I might as well just leave
Now we've all lost our purpose
My Cisco shares completely worthless
No future meetings for me
As the Hotel Krasnapolsky
And the men that made us push and push
Like Geoff Huston and Randy Bush
Shoulda listened to what they told us
The day the routers died

There, sing it
Bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I s'pose we'd better give it a try