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IP version 6 (IPv6) is a new version of the Internet Protocol, designed as a successor to IP version 4 (IPv4) which is what is currently in use.

Because IPv4 is 32 bits, it has about 4,300,000,000 address space in a decimal number. This amount is absolutely insufficient for the Internet world wide because it is smaller than the population of the world. According to calculations, that will exhaust the addresses in about year 2008 +/- 3.

In late 1990, The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), together with engineers from within the Internet community, recognized the usage trends and the then current shortcomings of the Internet. Rather than scrap the existing Internet, these people wanted to maintain all the good things about it, while extending its capabilities. To do this they created IPv6. Designed to interoperate with existing products that use IPv4 (for example, hosts and routers), IPv6 provides both the infrastructure for the Next Generation Internet and a means to deploy new services that leverage the enhanced and new features of the protocol.

The U.S. Government is putting its considerable weight behind a push towards IPv6. For example, the Defense Department — with its $30 billion budget — has been buying only IPv6-compliant networking gear since October 2003, and aims to have full IPv6 compliance by 2008.

IPv6 is a rapidly evolving standard. Some of the information provided in this FAQ may have been made obsolete at some point by newer developments.

If you notice such a change or have additional information to add to the FAQ please let us know.

Current and future challenges of mobile and wireless Internet can only be met by IPv6. IPv4 can merely provide costly, limited, inefficient, insecure, and patchy solutions to today's and tomorrow's problems. IPv6 further improves upon its predecessor by allowing new services to be added over time.

IPv6 appears to be the only solution for the truly mobile and wireless Internet, both from the users' and the service providers' perspective.

Read about it here.

It may be that your service provider has already rolled out IPv6. You can check here;

»www.sixxs.net/tools/ipv6calc/

Then you can try and find a tunnel broker that gives you a IPv6 in IPv4 address. this is transmitting everything about IPv6 over protocol 41 and you will get a IPv6 address, with which you can browse the IPv6 internet.

Most tunnel brokers require you to have the tunnel open 24/7, though. A number of big tunnel brokers have been set up, among which are in europe »www.sixxs.net/ , in canada »www.freenet6.net/ and Hurricane Electric »ipv6.he.net/ .

Yes,theres no need for special equiptment.

Broadbandreports.com does not have an IPV6 webserver at this time, but it may have one in the near future, it will then be reachable at »ipv6.broadbandreports.com and »www.ipv6.broadbandreports.com .

The following types of addresses are unicast IPv6 addresses:
•

Global unicast addresses
•

Link-local addresses
•

Site-local addresses
•

Special IPv6 addresses
•

Compatibility addresses

Mac OS X is basically IPv6 ready. You can setup a IPv6 to IPv4 tunnel by following the instructions found here
There is also a great blog related to mac & IPv6 found here

Nearly all IPv6 functionality for *BSD operating Systems was developed by the KAME project. With time more and more of their code makes it into the platforms FreeBSD (4.0), NetBSD (1.5), OpenBSD (2.7) and MacOS X (10.2). This means, that from the respective versions on, IPv6 will be switched on and available on all those platforms by default. You don't need to do anything. You can verify this with the command "ifconfig".

# ifconfig
rl0   flags=8943 mtu 1500
        inet 128.176.184.9 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast:128.176.184.255
        inet6 fe80::2e0:18ff:fe50:b5da%rl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
        ether 00:e0:18:50:b5:da
        media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX )
        status: active

The "inet6" line gives the presence of an IPv6 stack away. That means your *BSD host is already operating as a dual-stack host, deciding itself, when to use which kind of transport.

Everything needed to configure IPv6 under Linux.

»www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+IPv6-HOWTO/

Solaris 8 and later versions of the OS from Sun Microsystems fully support IPv6. The IPv6 implementation incorprates all basic services and functionalities of the protocol as well as IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnelling. Previous versions of Solaris can be patched with IPv6 but will still not have full support of the protocol.

IPv6 is enabled either during the installation procedure or by executing the following four steps:

* 1. Create an empty file by the name of "hostname." for every interface that is to support IPv6, e.g.:

# touch /etc/hostname6.hme0

* 2. Reboot
* 3. Excecute the following command for every interface that is now IPv6-enabled:

# ifconfig inet6 plumb up

This initializes the IPv6-Stack (inet6) for every interface.

Note for Solaris 9 users: We have been told that this step is no longer neccessary on the newer version of Solaris. The corresponding interfaces are automatically initialized.
* 4. At last excecute the script "/etc/init.d/inetinit". If more than one interface was enabled with IPv6 (or on Solaris 9, when the file "/etc/inet/ndpd.conf" is present) this will enable IPv6-forwarding and procedures like router advertisements and the routing protocol RIPng . If only one interface with IPv6 support is present only the neighbor discovery procedure will be started (as client). In any case this behaviour can also be changed by editing the "inetinit" script.

Windows XP (SP1 + Update q817778)
Windows XP with Service Pack 1 was the first Microsoft OS to include IPv6 officially out of the box. It is not switched on by default though. In oder to switch it on one has to open a command shell (MS DOS box) and type

c:\ netsh interface ipv6 install
c:\ netsh interface ipv6 set privacy disabled persistent

Without update q817778 it's "ipv6 install".

In an output of "ipconfig /all". The host had no native IPv6 connectivity and also did not find an ISATAP server although it did configure the interface ("Automatic Pseudo Tunneling-Interface") with only link-local ISATAP-addresses. You can see that your host last resorted to configuring 6to4 and also assigned link-local IPv6 addresses (fe80::/10) to all interfaces.

To uninstall IPv6, simply enter

c:\ netsh interface ipv6 uninstall

in the command shell. Please note that unlike after installation, a reboot is neccessary to fully uninstall the protocol.

Windows 2003/.NET Server
Windows 2003 of course also includes IPv6 support out of the box. But it still isn't switched on by default. Next to the command line option to install IPv6, this version of Windows also includes the option to install the IPv6 protocol through the graphical user interface. This way should even be prefered and under no circumstance should the two ways be mixed, when installing/uninstalling the protocol. That is, don't use the graphical user interface to install IPv6 and then try to uninstall it via "ipv6 uninstall" in the shell or vice versa. Some strange things happen then, at least in a few cases when we tried that out. However the usual way through the graphical user interface works just fine, so there's no need to experiment with the command line just for installing IPv6.

IPv6 is installed by opening the network properties of the current LAN connection (right-click on "My Network Places", go to "properties", right-click on LAN-Connection, again go to "properties"). The tab "General" includes the functionality to install additional network protocols. Just click on "Install" and search for "Microsoft TCP/IP Version 6" in the list of protocols. Select it and click "Ok". IPv6 is now installed and enabled. You don't even need to reboot.

Uninstall by deselecting the "ipv6" protocol in network properties of the current lan connection.

Microsoft itself does not support IPv6 for Windows 95/98 or NT4. There is however an IPv6 implementation from Trumpet by the name of Winsock which can be installed on these Windows versions (and even on Windows 3.1). The software is not free. There is also a try-out version availabe for a 30 day trial period, downloadable on their website.

Unfortunately the authors of this Howto have no experience with using this software and would like to refer the interested reader to the documentation that comes with Trumpet's Winsock implemenation itself.

Microsoft released an IPv6 Technology Preview for Windows 2000. This software can be installed on Windows 2000 hosts with Service Pack 1 installed. It is pre-productional and was derived from a research IPv6 implementation that was originally only intended for application developers.

The "Microsoft IPv6 Technology Preview" packages includes the following command line utilities (executable via the command shell) used to configure and monitor the IPv6 functionality of the host:

* net.exe: Utility that stops or starts the IPv6 protocol and unloads/loads it from/to the memory. The relevant commands are

c:\ net start tcpipv6
c:\ net stop tcpipv6

* ipv6.exe: Basic utility that configures network interfaces and updates the routing table. It also retrieves and displays information about the IPv6 protocol.
* 6to4cfg.exe: Utility that sets up and configures 6to4.
* ping6.exe, tracert6.exe: The IPv6 versions of the well-known utilities.
* ttcp.exe: Utility that sends TCP or UDP data between two network nodes. Usefull to test speed and throughput both for IPv4 and IPv6.
* ipsec.exe: Utility that configures policies and security associations for IPv6 IPsec traffic.

The Preview supports stateless IPv6 address autoconfiguration. Therefore, if there's a router on the link advertising a global prefix, the Windows 2000 host will automatically configure a global IPv6 address for its interface and set the IPv6 default route correctly when tcpipv6 is started (s.a.). Stateless Autoconfiguration is usually sufficient but if addresses should rather be configured manually the tool ipv6.exe tool is used.

1. To see, how all or a specific interface are configured, use the following command:

c:\ ipv6 if [if#]

2. To add an address to a specific interface, the following command is used:

c:\ ipv6 adu / [lifetime VL/PL] [anycast] [unicast]

If neither prefered nor valid lifetimes are specified the default is "infinite". If the parameter is set to zero the IPv6 address is removed.
3. The following command configures a few special attributes of an IPv6 interface. It enables or disables the interface to forward IPv6 packets or to send router advertisements both of which features are needed when the host should be used as a router. It also sets the MTU and the "site identifier" (aka prefix to advertise):

c:\ ipv6 ifc [forwards] [advertises] [-forwards] [-advertises] [mtu <#bytes>] [site ]

4. The tool is also used to configure routes. The following command adds a route entry to the routing table. Aside from the route itself also a time to live, preference value and wether or not the route should be published via some routing protocol can be set.

c:\ ipv6 rtu / [liftime L] [peference P] [publish] [age] [spl ]

5. To display all IPv6 routes, use the following command:

c:\ ipv6 rt

Warning: IPv6 configuration is not saved permanently. If not added to an executable start script any configuration will be lost upnon reboot/restart of the IPv6 stack.

Also, for windows 2000 with service pack 4;
Grab the "IPv6 Technology Preview for Windows 2000" here;
»www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta···yLang=en
and follow these instructions to get it to install on service pack 4:
1. Save the file tpipv6-001205.exe from the download page to a local folder (for example, C:\IPv6TP).
2. From the local folder (C:\IPv6TP), run Tpipv6-001205.exe and extract the files to the same location.
3. From the local folder (C:\IPv6TP), run Setup.exe -x and extract the files to a subfolder of the current folder (for example, C:\IPv6TP\files).
4. From the folder containing the extracted files (C:\IPv6TP\files), open the file Hotfix.inf in a text editor.
5. In the [Version] section of the Hotfix.inf file, change the line NTServicePackVersion=256 to NTServicePackVersion=1024 (768 for SP3), and then save changes.
--5a. From the folder containing the extracted files (C:\IPv6TP\files), open wship6.dll in a hex editor.
--5b. Go to offset $3D64 (15716 decimal) and change the string "ip6.int." to be "ip6.arpa.". Make sure the editor is in overwrite/replace mode rather than insert mode. There is plenty of room to modify the string. This fixes a later change regarding reverse lookups. See RFC3152
6. From the folder containing the extracted files (C:\IPv6TP\files), run Hotfix.exe.
7. Restart the computer when prompted.
8. After the computer is restarted, continue installing the Microsoft IPv6 Technology Preview for Windows 2000 starting at step 3 of the "Installing the IPv6 Technology Preview for Windows 2000" section of either the Introduction to the Microsoft IPv6 Technology Preview for Windows 2000 or the Readme.htm file in the folder containing Setup.exe (C:\IPv6TP).

Yes there is one that has several IPv6 tools to use online. See »www.ipv6tools.com

The IPv6 header has a new format that is designed to minimize header overhead. This is achieved by moving both nonessential fields and option fields to extension headers that are placed after the IPv6 header. The streamlined IPv6 header provides more efficient processing at intermediate routers.

IPv4 headers and IPv6 headers are not interoperable and the IPv6 protocol is not backward compatible with the IPv4 protocol. A host or router must use an implementation of both IPv4 and IPv6 in order to recognize and process both header formats. The new IPv6 header is only twice as large as the IPv4 header, even though IPv6 addresses are four times as large as IPv4 addresses.

The most obvious distinguishing feature of IPv6 is its use of much larger addresses. The size of an address in IPv6 is 128 bits, which is four times larger than an address in IPv4. A 32-bit address space allows for 2^32 or 4,294,967,296 possible addresses. A 128-bit address space allows for 2^128 or 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 (3.4 × 10^38) possible addresses.

In the late 1970s when the IPv4 address space was designed, it was unimaginable that it could be exhausted. However, due to changes in technology and an allocation practice that did not anticipate the recent explosion of hosts on the Internet, the IPv4 address space was consumed to the point that by 1992, it was clear a replacement would be necessary.

With IPv6, it is even harder to conceive that the IPv6 address space will be consumed. To help put this number in perspective, a 128-bit address space provides 655,570,793,348,866,943,898,599 (6.5 × 10^23) addresses for every square meter of the Earth's surface.

It is important to note that the decision to make the IPv6 address 128 bits in length was not so that every square meter of the Earth could have 6.5 x 10^23 addresses. Rather, the relatively large size of the IPv6 address is designed to be subdivided into hierarchical routing domains that reflect the topology of the modern-day Internet. The use of 128 bits provides multiple levels of hierarchy and flexibility in designing hierarchical addressing and routing that is currently lacking on the IPv4-based Internet.

The 128 bit address of the IPv6 is divided into 16 bit boundaries. Each of these boundaries is converted to a 4 digit hexadecimal (base 16) number which is separated by colons.

Examples:

•Here's an IPv6 address (128 bit) in binary form:
001000011101101000000001101001100000000000000000010111100111011
000000101010101000000001111111111111110001010001001110001011010

•We divide it into 16 bit boundaries:
0010000111011010 000000011010011 0000000000000000 0010111100111011
0000001010101010 000000011111111 1111111000101000 1001110001011010

•Each of these 16 bit boundaries is converted to hexadecimal (base 16) and delimited with colons:
21DA : 00D3 : 0000 : 2F3B : 02AA : 00FF : FE28 : 9C5A

•Leading zeros are suppressed. However, there must be at least one single digit in each boundary:
21DA:D3:0:2F3B:02AA:FF:FE28:9C5A

Hexadecimal (base 16)is used in IPv6 because it's easier to convert between hexadecimal and binary (base 2) than it is to convert between decimal and binary.

This document is meant as a showcase on how to add IPv6 to an existing IPv4 (home) network. The network in question is somewhat more complicated than your average home network. It has for instance two connection to the Internet. This documents describes the current layout of the LAN, how we added IPv6 to it and ends with a list of problems and a conclusion.

By adding IPv6 to a home setup one will receive a few advantages:

1. No more natting (at home),
2. Redundant email connection,
3. Global routable addresses for my servers,
4. P2P apps work.

Full how to here;
»www.nlnetlabs.nl/ipv6/case-studi···et/ipv6/
part 2 here;
»www.nlnetlabs.nl/ipv6/case-studi···6-take2/

It is 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1

It can also be expressed as ::1

An IP address is a 32-bit binary code (often written in the decimal-dot form) that contains network and host parts. The host bits define a particular computer.
The network prefix determines a network; its length depends on the network class.
Subnetting helps to organize a network by breaking it into several subnets. To define such subnets, you must take bits from the host portion of the IP address. That also extends the network prefix. The subnet mask explicitly defines network and host bits as 1 and 0, respectively.
Below, is a calculation of a subnet mask for a computer with IP address 192.35.128.93 that belongs to network with six subnets.

Step 1
Determine the network class (A, B or C) based on IP address:
* If IP addresses begin with 1 to 126, it is Class A.
* If IP addresses begin with 128 to 191, it is Class B.
* If IP addresses begin with 192 to 223, it is Class C.
In our example, the network is class C since the IP address 192.35.128.93 start with 192.

Step 2
Determine number of bits needed to define subnets:
* Number of subnets = (2^Number of bits) - 2. Hence,
* Number of bits = Log2(Number of subnets + 2).
In our example, there are six subnets:
* Number of bits = Log2(6 + 2) = Log2(8) = 3. Three bits in the IP address are used as a subnet portion.

Step 3
Compose the subnet mask in binary form by extending the default subnet mask with subnet bits. Default subnet mask for classes A to C are:
* 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000 (Class A, network part is 8 bits)
* 11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 (Class B, network part is 16 bits)
* 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 (Class C, network part is 24 bits)
In our example, an extension of the default class C subnet mask with 3 bits (Step 2) results in the subnet mask
11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000.

Step 4
Convert the binary subnet mask to the decimal-dot form. The binary form contains four octets (8 bits in each). Use following rules:
* For "1111111" octet, write "255".
* For "00000000" octet, write "0".
* If octet contains both "1" and "0" use the formula:
Integer number = (128 x n) + (64 x n) + (32 x n) + (16 x n) + (8 x n) + (4 x n) + (2 x n) + (1 x n)
Where "n" is either 1 or 0 in the corresponding position in the octet sequence.
In our example, for 11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000
11111111 ---> 255
11111111 ---> 255
11111111 ---> 255
11100000---> (128 x 1) + (64 x 1) + (32 x 1) + (16 x 0) + (8 x 0) + (4 x 0) + (2 x 0) + (1 x 0) = 224
Subnet mask is 255.255.255.224.

You can also use one of the many online Subnet calculators available on the net.
Here is one, »www.subnetonline.com/pages/subne···ator.php

(with windows and linux clients)

Let us proceed with the installation routine. The following is an outline of steps. First, install IPv6 and IPv6 netfilter support into your kernel. Then, add IPv6 support into your IPv4 firewall. Don't forget to sign up for an account with Freenet6. Use the Debian package manager (APT) to install freenet6, radvd, dnsmasq, iputils-ping, and iputils-tracepath (apt-get install). Configure both freenet6 and radvd to work with your system and your individual configuration. Finally, obtain an IPv6 firewall script for the gateway....read more here »cruisefx.justjohnnyweb.net/Docum···PV6.html

Windows Server 2003 provides better support for IPv6 and for some of its security mechanisms. However, it is important for administrators to be aware of the limitations of Server 2003’s implementation of IPv6 when it comes to security features. The information provided, will discuss both the theoretical and the practical aspects of using IPv6 to create a more secure network environment with Microsoft’s latest server operating system. This is an overview of Microsoft’s IPv6 implementation and is not intended to be a complete guide to implementing IPv6 on your network. Read more here ...

Although designed to provide better security via IPSec, IPv6 also includes many enhancements, some of which can be exploited by attackers. For example, the address autoconfiguration feature be used by attackers to announce rogue routers. In addition, some of the transitioning mechanisms designed to allow for easier interaction between IPv6 and IPv4 networks can be misused by attackers. Transitioning tools create a way for IPv4 applications to connect to IPv6 services, and IPv6 apps to connect to v4 services.

Because of the standardized transitioning methods, such as 6to4, Simple Internet Transition (SIT) tunnels and IPv6 over UDP (such as Teredo and Shipworm), IPv6 traffic may be coming into networks without their administrators being aware of the fact (and thus, without them being aware that they are vulnerable to IPv6 exploits). For example, since many firewalls allow UDP traffic, IPv6 over UDP can get through those firewalls without administrators realizing what’s happening. Attackers can use 6 over 4 tunnels to evade Intrusion Detection software.

It’s also important to note that the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) that is included with Server 2003 is only capable of filtering IPv4 traffic; it cannot block IPv6 traffic. Attackers can exploit this and get into your network with IPv6 packets if you don’t implement other firewall software that has this capability.

IPConvert - convert IPv4 to IPv6

IPConvert is a simple tool, that converts an IPv4 formatted address to an IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) formatted address. It displays the converted address in Full , Shorthand , and Dot Notation formats. Useful for quick conversions, and for getting used to the (eventually) upcoming IPv6 protocol.

Here is a detailed list of IPv6 Host & Router Implementations by Organization.

Click Here