Broadband Tech > IPv6 > New routers handling IPv6

New routers handling IPv6

I can't speak for *every* new router out there, but all the latest from the major manufacturers seem to support it (Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, Trendnet (bleh), Buffalo, etc). If in doubt, check the specs.
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reply to Jammers
The Buffalo's don't support DHCP6-PD. So axe that from your list.

reply to Jammers
Most recent models do, but as previously mentioned, check the specs...easy enough to do. At this point in time there is not a lot of reason to buy a new router that is not IPv6 enabled.

The router that I mentioned to you in your other thread asking about routers (Linksys EA2700) is IPv6 enabled.
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reply to Jammers
It really depends on what you mean by "handle"...

most routers maybe able to process IPv6, but due to it's sheer size each packet needs to be processed multiple times unless the router has a 128bit processor. So because of that almost all the Consumer grade routers would be able to handle at half the performance in full stream. So your Gig performance should be in around 400mbps or lower range... but if you load a 4 port router and attempt to push/pull on all ports let's a 4gig file, the performance will degrade to single mbps.

Where are you getting this from?

from performance testing netgear, linksys

reply to Jammers
Consumer-grade routers mostly all have some level of IPv6 support but I haven't seen a single one that supports it natively, i.e. where all functions are designed for IPv6.

Current generation will support a hybrid environment where some IPv6 is present, but I don't think any of them will completely work in a pure IPv6 environment.

If IPv6 is already being transitioned from IPv4 why wouldn't the companies that make routers start building them to support IPv6 natively? Seems ridiculous not to start now.

People have been saying that for a decade now.

reply to Jammers

Misleading. Routers handling IPv6 is NOT compared to IPv4 handling. The hardware enabled IPv6 is years away for consumers so NO Jammers comment is NOT misleading.

no one is questioning IPv4... Natively, is in hardware. Please let me know which consumer grade router provides IPv6, natively.

In software is NOT Native.

reply to Jammers
new Cisco Linksys E1200 Wireless-N router out of box (hardware version 2) came with 2.00.01 code PPPoE only got single IPv6 address, had to upgrade to 2.00.02 code to get DHCP-PD to work. works without any configuration on linksys router after that. It also seems to support 6RD (for you AT&T users come July 2012) if you have prefix and IP of server.

In my test case, I am assigning ::/128 address to WAN via PPP (Dual Stack mode), and ::/56 to LAN, of course i'm guessing it just uses first ::/64.

reply to Da Geek Kid
"native" does not mean "in hardware". No consumer level hardware does any layer 3 protocol in hardware. In this sense, "native" means the manufacturer ships the device with support for IPv6 -- you don't have to hack around with 3rd party software or download experimental (often buggy) firmware from the manufacturer. Likewise, "native" when talking about your ISP does not mean "in hardware", but "without yet another tunneling technology." (native as in "not requiring IPv4")

Carrier (and enterprise) gear with support for IPv6 switching in hardware has been around for several generations. Even my eBay surplus Nortel (now Avaya) switches have some IPv6 functions in hardware. (aging cisco gear... none.)

[note: it's becoming more common for nics to have checksum offloading capabilities, but that's only a small part of the full protocol. I don't know if or which ones support v6 checksum offloading.]

As I stated no consumer h/w supports IPv6. Natively by your definition is a nonsense word. As any firmware can be updated to include IPv6 than to be called a Native IPv6.

I consider the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) to be good authority on all things Internet related and the term "Native IPv6" is used in a number of RFCs (including RFCs on the Standards Track).

In all such cases the meaning of the term refers to the ability to communicate using IPv6 packets without having to encapsulate and tunnel it over IPv4 (6in4, 6to4, teredo). I'm not aware of any attempt by the IETF or other standards bodies to use the term "Native IPv6" to distinguish between hardware and software implementations of the protocol.

That doesn't mean that distinguishing between hardware and software implementations isn't important but using the term "Native IPv6" for that purpose is at best confusing.
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reply to Da Geek Kid

Well, I was the first one to use "natively" in this thread and I provided a definition for what "natively" means to me in this context.

I'll repeat it for clarity.

To me, in the context being discussed here, a consumer-grade router that would "natively" support IPv6 would be a consumer-grade router that can operate both in IPv4, IPv6 and hybrid environments and where all of it's functions are available, no matter the standard used.

I have yet to see a single consumer-grade router where the more advanced functions (such as firewalling, QoS, parental control, etc.) work in IPv6.

To address Jammers question as to why manufacturers aren't doing it? Cost vs. return. At this point IPv6 is such a fringe technology that they wouldn't really sell any more routers even if they did natively support IPv6, and it would be very expensive to re-write the whole code for all those routers (let alone ensure there's no degradation of performance, enough physical memory available, etc.). So they're only doing the absolute minimum to support IPv6 and they figure by the time it's necessary for them to write that code the labour required will be cheaper (more people will know how to code for IPv6 by then), the hardware will be designed for it and the consumer will be aware of it and demand it.

Plus they'll get to sell you one more router.