Are you ready for IPv6?

[DontAskJusTckle]

Seeing how the TMF is an Internet forum, I thought that perhaps some of you might be interested in this big change that has actually already begun as of June of last year. Of course I'm talking about the change from IPv4 to IPv6.

What the hell are you talking about, DAJT?

Every device that sits on the public Internet has a unique IP address. This is a 32-bit string that routers use to indentify the source and destination of Internet traffic. If you ever want to know your own IP address, open a "Command Prompt" (Start/All Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt). In the little black window type the word ipconfig and hit enter.

C:\Users\dajt>ipconfig

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : dajt.cox.com
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1​

My IP address is 192.168.1.101. But this is not a public address. It's a private address, used only between my cable modem and the computers in my house. The cable modem has a public IP address with which it interfaces the Internet. (see attachment)

If you want to know the IP address of a web page, simply ping that website in your Command Prompt window.

C:\Users\dajt>ping www.foxnews.com

Pinging a20.gakamai.net [208.47.254.56] with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 208.47.254.56: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=49
Reply from 208.47.254.56: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=49
Reply from 208.47.254.56: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=49
Reply from 208.47.254.56: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 208.47.254.56:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip time in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 14ms, Average = 13ms​

So far these IP addresses we're seeing are all IPv4 addresses. They are represented here in "dotted decimal notation" for the benefit of us average humans who deal with base 10 quicker and easier than base 2. For example, the Fox News IP address 208.47.254.56 really looks like this:

11010000.00101111.11111110.00111000​

So basically, this is what an IPv4 address looks like. Four bytes, or 32 bits. This is how virtually every packet has been sent over the internet since its inception. It's been a great system...

...But, we now have a problem, Houston. There are only so many IP addresses conceivable. Roughly 4.3 billion. That may sound like a lot, but believe it or not we are running out, and the pool of available IPv4 addresses is quickly running dry! This has been coming for years, and there have been many band-aids to temporarily hold off the inevitable, like subnetting, Network Address Translation, Private IP space, etc.

But finally, a more permanent solution has arrived.

Enter IPv6! It works pretty much the same as IPv4 except for a few key differences, the most significant of which is the address size. IPv6 addresses are 128 bits (16 bytes) which gives us a pool of about 3.4 x 10³⁸. About one IP address for every 15 sq feet on the planet.

Now let's see what happens if we ping Google!

C:\Users\dajt>ping www.google.com

Pinging www.google.com [2404:6800:4003:801::1014] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 2404:6800:4003:801::1014: time=268ms
Reply from 2404:6800:4003:801::1014: time=265ms
Reply from 2404:6800:4003:801::1014: time=264ms
Reply from 2404:6800:4003:801::1014: time=266ms

Ping statistics for 2404:6800:4003:801::1014:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 264ms, Maximum = 268ms, Average = 265ms​

That is what an IPv6 address looks like. Notice the address is no longer displayed in dotted decimal, but rather hexidecimal. Eventually, IPv4 will be phased out, and all IP addresses will look more or less like what we see from Google.

There's a lot more we could talk about. I'm sure many are already aware of the change to IPv6, but I thought a simple presentation like this might be beneficial for some.

 

[PiedPiper]

Thanks for that (obviously) expert tutorial, DAJT. No hardware or software changes to make at home?

 

[DontAskJusTckle]

Thanks for that (obviously) expert tutorial, DAJT. No hardware or software changes to make at home?

Thanks, my fellow Virginian.

As for hardware changes, it depends on your provider. If your Internet service comes with your Cable TV provider as in the diagram I attached to the opening post, they may send you a new cable modem if you have an older one. The newer ones should all be IPv6 certified and would only require some reconfiguration that the ISP would perform remotely.

Your PC's, Macs, tablets, wireless flat-screen TV's, etc., those things on your side of the cable modem aren't quite in such dire need of the IPv6 upgrade. The Cable Modem routers could easily translate your private IPv4 to public IPv6, but sooner or later, everything will be IPv6. Like I said, this has been coming for a long time, so most manufacturers of network equipment (like the NIC cards in PC's and laptops) have already incorporated IPv6 capability. In short, if your shit is real old, it will likely have to be replaced. Otherwise, you're probably fine.

The world right now is in a transition phase, in which many publicly accessible web servers are running dual stack IPv4 and IPv6. This transition period started last June. As time passes IPv4 will be phased out. My guess is that by 2016-2017, there will be very little left of IPv4, at least in the public domain.

 

[kwildoctr]

Interesting and actually potentially helpful information. Thanks.

R

 

[shiftdown]

well I thought I was something of a tech guy....DAJT thanks for showing me I got a lot to learn, overall thanks for showing us that

 

[DontAskJusTckle]

No worries. I just think it's interesting as hell the way it all works. Looking at the ping test results I noticed something rather interesting that I missed earlier. The ping to foxnews.com gave an average round trip time of 13ms. That's .013 seconds. The reason it's such a low figure is because the web hosting service that hosts foxnews.com is likely right here in Ashburn VA. 70% of all internet traffic passes through Ashburn and most of the major ISP's have data centers here.

The ping to Google took an average of of 265ms or .265 seconds. This higher latency is likely because Google is 3000 miles away in California. And no matter how much bandwidth you have, it still takes time for a signal to traverse that kind of distance, even when that signal is a light wave.

To give you another idea of how the Internet has exploded continuously, consider the speeds of Ethernet.

We used to have 10mb ethernet. 10 megabit mean 10 million bits per second. There were slower versions but that was the speed of ethernet when it really started taking off.

Then they came out with 100mb Ethernet. 100,000,000 bits per second. Cisco calls that Fast Ethernet.

Somewhere around 2003 or so, the concept of Carrier Ethernet was launched and about this same time Gigabit Ethernet was introduced. A billion bits per second. Gig-E can ride copper 10baseT cable for short distances, but more often it's sent over fiber optic cable.

A few years later, 10GE (ten gigabit Ethernet) was introduced. 10 billion bits per second.

And today, utilizing a technology called DWDM which combines different lightwave frequencies (colors) onto a single strand of fiber? You guessed it. 100GE is fast becoming the new high capacity standard in Carrier Ethernet.

These are truly amazing times in which we live!

 

[shiftdown]

Further tech talk...tr...y..ing..to..wra...p..brain ...arou....nd *head explodes*

 

[kopfhorer]

I s'pose it means new Ethernet cards (to replace the integrated ones) for any older PC's which have been relegated to Internet grunt work.

 

[shiftdown]

From what i can see, I`d say either add-ons or completely new ones

 

[kis123]

Further tech talk...tr...y..ing..to..wra...p..brain ...arou....nd *head explodes*

I just learned how to send a chat message from gmail.......yeah, I'm right there with ya'!!

But thanks for the information DAJT; it'll give me an excuse to buy new computers in 2017!