I ignored IPv6 for years, and now my home network is paying the price

IPv6 adoption has quietly crossed the 50% threshold for Google users, catching many home lab enthusiasts off guard. NAT, while never designed as a security feature, incidentally shielded home network devices from unsolicited inbound traffic under IPv4. With ISPs transitioning to IPv6, devices get globally routable addresses, removing that incidental protection. The fix is straightforward: add a WAN firewall rule on your router (pfSense, OPNsense, or most consumer routers) to drop unsolicited inbound IPv6 traffic while allowing established and related connections.