IPv6 Protocol

IPv6 can provide 128-bit addresses

[rtroxel]

IPv6 [ipv6.org] will be coming in a few years, and I read in a recent article that Microsoft has already linked all their offices with it. This latest version of IP will extend the current 32-bit addresses to 128-bit addresses.

Since the Internet began in the US, most of the current (IPv4) addresses are owned by US organizations and companies. In fact, Virginia Tech [vt.edu], an engineering college, owns most of the Class B addresses.

As the Internet expands into Asia, along with wireless technology, IPv6 will become more prevalent. There are hubs and routers for VPNs available today that can convert data travelling from IPv6 to IPv4 and vice-versa.

This is definitely a trend to watch, because some experts have been predicting an IP address shortage within the next 5 years or so. So make your servers compatible now! :)

[rtroxel]

Actually, an experimental version of IPv6 comes with Windows XP.

Says Microsoft:

The IPv6 software supplied in this release contains prerelease code and is not intended for commercial use. This software is made available for research, development, and testing only and must never be used in a production environment. Microsoft is not responsible for your use of the code or for the results from your use of the code, and Microsoft does not provide any level of technical support for IPv6 in this release.

[killroy]

<sarcasm>remove IPv6 and replace with "software where apropriate, and this statement will still ring true.</sarcasm>

Sorry, couldn't help it.

SN

[rtroxel]

<sarcasm>remove IPv6 and replace with "software where apropriate, and this statement will still ring true.</sarcasm>

You mean this might create another hole in Windows?

Point well taken - unfortunately. ;)

[bakedjake]

IPv6 won't be deployed anytime soon on a mass scale. How many years now have we seen articles about the "IPv4 shortage"? I think it's been at least 4 or 5 now. CIDR slowed a lot of the problems with shortage. NAT is really slowing a lot of the problems with shortage.

Backbone providers have no financial incentive to roll out IPv6. Until it becomes critical to do so, they won't.

Professor Dan Bernstein (author of qmail) has some thoughts published on why IPv6 isn't getting rolled out, and won't be rolled out anytime soon: [cr.yp.to...]

BTW - By IANA's and ARIN's latest published growth statistics, and the number of blocks still held in reserve, we'll realistically run out of space somewhere between 2015 and 2020.

[arin.net...]

[killroy]

What I actually was trying to say, tounge in cheek, so to speak, was that with a continous flow of updates revisions, fixes, patches, and so on of wiondows, you can't really call windows final production code ;) Saying that a part of windows is unfinished and risky is calling the...<snip>gee, a second ago I had a whitty remark in my head, now it's gone</snip>.

SN

[txbakers]

I am in the process of developing a contract with the US Navy for some web work, and one of the requirements is to be IPv6 compliant when availble.

So I don't think it's going away. It might not be here next year, but Windows 2003 apparently is IPv6 compliant already.