IPv6.net

We are proud to announce that the ipv6.net website has moved to a dedicated server and is fully ipv6 enabled. After some serious troubles with hosting provider Justhost.com (Man do they suck. Don't ever go there!) we had an opportunity to move it to a server at the Schuberg Philis datacenter in Amsterdam.

And it is ipv6 enabled again! Again, yes, because sometime back in 2004 it already was through a tunnel for a while. But lack of time and change of employment made it impossible to properly maintain it and it died a silent death.

Connectivity is kindly provided by Atom86...

We have added a new page with a collection of interesting IPv6 related video presentations. Conferences, lab work shops and interviews with prominent persons, it's all there.. If you know of any other good videos, please let us know. Enjoy watching!

IP version 6 (IPv6, see RFC2460) is a new version of the Internet Protocol, designed as the successor to IP version 4 (IPv4) [RFC-791]. The new Internet protocol was designed in the 1990's and, rather than using the 32-bit addressing system, it uses a 128-bit system. That gives us 2¹²⁸ or 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IP addresses and is enough for the Internet to continue to grow. Because of the rapid IPv4 address exhaustion it is imperative that the world starts using the new protocol version now. The old and new protocols are not directly compatible; an IPv4 device is not able to communicate with an IPv6 device. Therefore a number of steps have to be taken before world wide deployment can be realized. Technology has to be updated, personnel has to be trained and above all: awareness has to be created.

What happened to IPv5?

Many people not familiar with the matter often ask this, what seems a very logical, question.  The protocols that operate at the Network Layer of the OSI model of computer networking, like IPv4, IPv6, ICMP, ICMPv6, IGMP, IPSec etc., have been assigned protocol numbers. Protocol number 5 could not be used as the successor to number 4 because the Experimental Streaming Protocol Version 2 (ST2, see RFC1819) had already been assigned to it.

How is IPv6 different?

The changes from IPv4 to IPv6 fall primarily into the following categories:

Expanded Addressing Capabilities

IPv6 increases the IP address size from 32 bits to 128 bits, to support more levels of addressing hierarchy, a much greater number of addressable nodes, and simpler auto-configuration of addresses. The scalability of multicast routing is improved by adding a "scope" field to multicast addresses. And a new type of address called an "anycast address" is defined, used to send a packet to any one of a group of nodes.

Header Format Simplification

Some IPv4 header fields have been dropped or made optional, to reduce the common-case processing cost of packet handling and to limit the bandwidth cost of the IPv6 header.

Improved Support for Extensions and Options

Changes in the way IP header options are encoded allows for more efficient forwarding, less stringent limits on the length of options, and greater flexibility for introducing new options in the future.

Flow Labeling Capability

A new capability is added to enable the labeling of packets belonging to particular traffic "flows" for which the sender requests special handling, such as non-default quality of service or "real-time" service.

Authentication and Privacy Capabilities

Extensions to support authentication, data integrity, and (optional) data confidentiality are specified for IPv6.

That is all mighty interesting and I would like to get IPv6 ready ASAP. Where do I go from here?

Resources

The best thing to do now is to start learning more about the matter. A good way to do that is to get yourself a good book and start reading. A large selection of IPv6 books can be found in our Amazon online US shop and UK shop.

If you already have some knowledge but like to learn more about topics as, implementation, migration, integration, optimization and other 'ations', have a look at our excellent selection of slideshare presentations and videos made by industry professionals.

Maybe you are already busy upgrading your network to the next generation but are running into some problems. Or maybe you are facing new challenges or like to share your findings with others. Visit our IPv6 community forum and start sharing.

Network and other IT professionals can keep their knowledge up to date with our hot IPv6 news feed. If you are interested in attending summits or other industry events and meetings, keep an eye on our list of upcoming events.

More resources

We will be adding more information, documents, tools and other resources as time progresses. So make sure to check back soon!

Contact

If you can't find what you need or you would like to make a comment or request, don't hesitate to contact us.