IPv6

[red-beard]

OK, my replacement router is "supposed" to be IPv6 capable. It looks like it is on the LAN side, but the WAN side it is IPv4

I think I need to specify a DNS for IPv6, but Comcast doesn't seem to provide one.

[red-beard]

I switched out my RV042 for a RVS4000. The RVS 4000 is Gigabit LAN, all around. I'm using a Motorola SB6120 SURFboard for the cable modem.

Basically, I'm trying to get IPv6 internet capability.

[slodave]

Just for kicks or for a better reason?

[Steve Viegas]

They are running out of addresses. IPv6 will be necessary starting later this year it appears, but it should not affect the average person I believe.

[slodave]

I know what is happening. IPv6 was to be implemented years ago, when the IPv4 pool was supposed to run out, then it didn't, then it was again, then it didn't...

[Paul_Heery]

Comcast has started trials. They haven't rolled it out across their network yet.

Comcast's IPv6 Information Center

[Scott R]

Been running out since 1997. Will be a long time before the average ISP upgrades to v6. 4,294,967,296 (2^32) total IPV4 addresses, will be a while.

[Paul_Heery]

Try this

Test your IPv6.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by slodave

Just for kicks or for a better reason?

Really, no good reason.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Paul_Heery

Try this

Test your IPv6.

It said it doesn't understand my setup!

[red-beard]

OK, so Comcast needs to turn on IPv6 for my cable modem...

[Scott R]

A lot more involved than just switching it on.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

How does all this work? Do they add another group (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) to get more combinations or what? Currently the addressing is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where xxx is a number between 0-255. This should be 255^4 or 4,294,967,296 combinations possible. How do they get more exactly?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Steve Viegas

They are running out of addresses. IPv6 will be necessary starting later this year it appears, but it should not affect the average person I believe.

Originally Posted by Scott R

Been running out since 1997. Will be a long time before the average ISP upgrades to v6. 4,294,967,296 (2^32) total IPV4 addresses, will be a while.

Yep, there are still a bunch floating around, but you've also got a ton of new stuff getting on the net every day. A big one is cell phones, then there's stuff like video cameras, alarms, heck, potentially even home thermostats. I don't expect us to actually run out in the next month or two, but I suspect it's not as far away as we'd like to think.

ICANN assigns its last IPv4 addresses

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has handed out its last IPv4 addresses, leaving the remaining blocks to regional registries that in some cases may exhaust them within a few months.

The end of IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) addresses was announced in a ceremony in Miami on Thursday morning. Each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) was allocated one of the final five large blocks of about 16 million addresses.

The end of the central supply of IPv4 addresses signaled the urgency of enterprises and service providers to migrate to IPv6, the latest version of the protocol, which has been available for more than a decade and allows for an almost unlimited number of addresses. When there are no more IPv4 addresses available from the RIRs, new hosts on the Internet will not be able to communicate with systems that use only IPv4

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

How does all this work? Do they add another group (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) to get more combinations or what? Currently the addressing is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where xxx is a number between 0-255. This should be 255^4 or 4,294,967,296 combinations possible. How do they get more exactly?

Right, the current address scheme covers 0.0.0.0 through 255.255.255.255. Some of the range is not actually usable on the net. For instance, the two that I listed above that bound the range are not usable. Also, anything that starts with a 10.x.x.x is not usable on the net as well as 172.16.x.x - 172.31.x.x and 192.168.x.x. Also, nothing from 224.x.x.x up to 255.x.x.x. All of those are reserved for special applications or circumstances.

The new IPv6 stuff is very different.
IPv6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While IPv4 allows 32 bits for an Internet Protocol address, and can therefore support 232 (4,294,967,296) addresses, IPv6 uses a 128-bit address and the new address space supports 2128 (340 undecillion or 3.4×1038
) addresses.

Here's what the new addresses will look like.

2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334

You can drop leading "0" or, if as in the case above, there are groups that are all "0" then you can omit them altogether (keeping the colons).

Each character can be any of the hexadecimal characters 0-9 and a-f.

In my job, I'm primarily concerned with IP addresses. What I do is essentially to make sure that they can get where they need to go, or not get where they aren't supposed to go. I often have a bunch of them memorized and/or can look at them and gain valuable knowledge about the device or where it is based on all or parts of the address. I'm not looking forward to IPv6. I guess I need to start studying up. I'm sure it won't be that long before knowledge of IPv6 will be valuable for me.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

How does all this work? Do they add another group (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) to get more combinations or what? Currently the addressing is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where xxx is a number between 0-255. This should be 255^4 or 4,294,967,296 combinations possible. How do they get more exactly?

Actual "public" IP addresses can be one address for a company. Behind that is networks of other routed networks that you can't normally see. You and I probably have the same IP address range on our home routers, it's common to have 192.168.0.0 segment which you nat to one public IP at the ISP.

In theory on your home network you could also have 4,294,967,296 addresses as well, all behind one externally facing IP. This is why we're not in a panic about running out of IP's.

IPV6 is a 128 bit address lenght, so 2128 (340 undecillion or 3.4×1038) addresses. so now instead of 255 we have 0000 and every decimal combination of that. But this is all stateless so it's not like typing in IP's anymore.

An article recently said we had six months left on ipv4 after they allocated the last blocks to ISPs recently. However allocated is not in use so it's not likely to be IP address riot in the near future.

The two systems run in parallel BTW, it's not an extension to the existing address block.

[pitargue]

If IPv6 w/ 6rd support is turned on your router you could try 6rd. See IPv6 rapid deployment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Looks like comcast did some field trials with it.

N.B. The mechanics of registration and set up of 6rd is beyond the scope of this post.

[James Brown]

I do like the 1/2" milwaukee router, plenty of power.

[Halm]

James, how is your RVS4000 working out. Mine has a few "issues."

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Halm

James, how is your RVS4000 working out. Mine has a few "issues."

It has been running for a day, and is the router for the network for about 4 hours. It came from the store with the latest firmware already installed. I put one of these up for my sister and it was dead in 24 hours.

I bought a similar but wireless-n version of this unit and it worked for a year then just died. I was running the RV042, but it is 100Mbps, when everything else on my LAN is 1Gbps.

[red-beard]

OK, so the guy at Test your IPv6. says my setup is totally off and to switch off the IPv6. I'm on IPv4 only now. So I guess this stuff isn't plug and play yet.