A Basic Introduction to IPv6 http://ipv6.he.net/certification/primer.

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So what is "IPv6", and why do I need to know about it? Forums
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IPv6 or IP version 6 is the next generation Internet protocol which will eventually replace the current Usage Statistics
protocol IPv4. IPv6 has a number of improvements and simplifications when compared to IPv4. The Network Map
primary difference is that IPv6 uses 128 bit addresses as compared to the 32 bit addresses used Looking Glass (v4/v6)
with IPv4. This means that there are more available IP addresses using IPv6 than are available with Route Server (telnet)
IPv4 alone. For a very clear comparison, in IPv4 there is a total of 4,294,967,296 IP addresses. Global IPv6 Report
With IPv6, there is a total of 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IP addresses in a single /64 allocation. IPv6 BGP View
Top 10 Certs
To also help illustrate the sheer magnitude of available IP addresses using IPv6, you can get 65536
mhwarfield [1,400] /64 allocations out of a single /48, and then 65536 /48 allocations out of a single /32. Many Service Services
klamtest [1,400] Providers are getting /32 allocations from their Regional Internet Registry (RIR) like ARIN, APNIC,
Transit
sworseybuck [1,400] RIPE, etc.
Colocation
prye [1,400] Dedicated Servers
A significant difference between IPv6 and IPv4 is the address notation. IPv4 uses a period (.)
kriteknetworks [1,400] between each octet, compared to IPv6 which uses a colon (:). With IPv6, if you have a series of
kristiankrohn [1,395] zeroes in a row, the address need not be written out completely. You can use a double colon (::) to v4 Exhaustion
brianewell [1,337] represent that series of zeroes, however you can only use that once. For example, if you have an
address like "2001:0DB8:0000:0003:0000:01FF:0000:002E", it can be written like
jhaprins [1,186]
strehi [1,170]
"2001:DB8::3:0:1FF:0:2E" or "2001:DB8:0:3:0:1FF::2E", but would never be written like IPv4 & IPv6
"2001:DB8::3::1ff::2E". You also cannot have three colons in a row (:::).
kiklhorn [1,149] Statistics
IPv6 availability depends on your Service Provider, either at home or for work. In a dual-stack
environment, IPv4 and IPv6 co-exist along the same connection and don't require any special kind of v4 Addresses
Latest 10 Certs connection. If dual-stack is not available, you might find yourself using an IP tunneling product or 449,202,781

pnileshin [Newb] service to bring IPv6 connectivity to you. IPv4 exhaustion, as of this writing, is estimated to happen v4 /8s Left
sometime in early or mid 2011. When this happens, IPv4 won't simply disappear off the face of the 11% (30/256)
francine [Newb] Internet, but continued explosive growth requiring more unique IP address assignments will mean
kitcha [Newb] using more and more of the abundant IPv6 address space. v6 Networks
4% (1,520/32,096)
halliemoyer [Newb]
Many Operating System platforms have native IPv6 support these days. The UNIX based platforms v6 Ready TLDs
samwincngogoorg [Prof]
like Linux, BSD (Free, Open, Net) & MacOSX have had IPv6 support enabled for years now. 78% (220/280)
ehinmers [Expl] Microsoft Windows starting having native IPv6 support enabled by default with it's Vista and
samwin1cngogoorg [Newb] Windows 2008 products. Earlier Windows versions like 2000/2003/XP had to have it installed v6 Glue
1,251
amurillo1987 [Newb] optionally, and did not have as robust features that are available in the newer versions of Windows.
Even common web browsing and email software will use IPv6 if it is enabled and available, without v6 Domains
mirotvorac [Newb]
having to check off an option or special configuration. The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is being 1,536,332
muyius [Newb] worked on to be as seemless as possible, and many might not even notice the subtle changes in the
coming years.
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