The changeover to IPv6?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Apparently the last of the IPv4 addresses have been, or soon will be, allocated. So it looks like the final switchover to IPv6 will have to commence quick. Linky

My question is this: Will we all have to get new cable modems and/or routers, to handle it? (I'm guessing our OSes will already work; there seems to be an option for IPv6 in Mac OS X)

My ISP is Cox, and their FAQ on this issue says that they are trying to make the changeover 'invisible' to consumers. How can they do this? The systems of IPv4 and IPv6 are so different that I always thought we, the users, would need new modems. Is this the case, or not?

 

[Canadave]

Nope. By all accounts, this won't affect the average Internet user at all. I don't have enough technical knowledge to know the details, but most of us shouldn't even notice anything has changed.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I realize that most of us don't deal with the actual Web address numbers in our day to day use of the net, but it's going to come up eventually. At the very least, we'll need to know our own computers' IP addresses, won't we? What about things like DNS servers?

 

[Lindley]

The old IPv4 addresses will still work, at least for a time, so it's not like anything is going to go dark. It's even possible to send packets to IPv6 addresses through hardware which doesn't understand IPv6, via a process called tunneling. So I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The old IPv4 addresses will still work, at least for a time, so it's not like anything is going to go dark.

Are you sure? Check out that article I posted. Things are not looking up.

 

[Canadave]

I realize that most of us don't deal with the actual Web address numbers in our day to day use of the net, but it's going to come up eventually. At the very least, we'll need to know our own computers' IP addresses, won't we? What about things like DNS servers?

Well for IP addresses, copy and paste will always be an option.

And having done a little more reading, my understanding of IPv6 is that it will be several years before it's implemented on any sort of large scale, plenty of time to gradually replace hardware. It's not like the internet is suddenly going to turn off.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well for IP addresses, copy and paste will always be an option.

I'm not following...

And having done a little more reading, my understanding of IPv6 is that it will be several years before it's implemented on any sort of large scale, plenty of time to gradually replace hardware. It's not like the internet is suddenly going to turn off.

I've done more reading as well - fortunately, my cable modem (being DOCSIS 3.0 compliant) supports IPv6, as does my router (AirPort Extreme) and OS X. Don't know about Windows though.

 

[Marc]

Well for IP addresses, copy and paste will always be an option.

I'm not following...

And having done a little more reading, my understanding of IPv6 is that it will be several years before it's implemented on any sort of large scale, plenty of time to gradually replace hardware. It's not like the internet is suddenly going to turn off.

I've done more reading as well - fortunately, my cable modem (being DOCSIS 3.0 compliant) supports IPv6, as does my router (AirPort Extreme) and OS X. Don't know about Windows though.

There will only been the need to deal with IPv6 when you go externally.

You computers at home will still connect using IPv4 because there won't been a need for IPv6 there (the addresses used behind routers/firewalls etc etc are in private non-routable address ranges the shortage of IP addresses will never been an issue there).

You cable modem won't know about IPv6, it doesn't need to know about IPv6. It's simply a bridge. It's the router where it matters even then it won't matter if it didn't have IPv6 because your ISP would simpe work IPv4-IPv6 translation.

With IPv6 in place you'd get an IPv6 on your external connection (basically the WAN port where your modem is plugged into the router) but for the most part you won't noticed it you'll simply put in the URL for each website you want to visit and DNS will do it's trick whether the site has an IPv4 or v6 address.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ But what about when you might need to input an IPv4 address directly? Some websites have only the address number and no name.

 

[RoJoHen]

I can safely say I have no idea what this is about.

I have never needed to know the IP address of any computer I've ever owned.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ In a nutshell: The Internet has run out of addresses.

IP address exhaustion

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, she had a good run. Time to shut her down!

 

[Marc]

^ But what about when you might need to input an IPv4 address directly? Some websites have only the address number and no name.

Then you simply put it the IPv4 address as you would now.

However I very much doubt that any legitimate website that would be commonly accessed by the general public would have such a requirement - it has the potential to break too much.

Basically you're turning a mole hill into mount evrest.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ But what about when you might need to input an IPv4 address directly? Some websites have only the address number and no name.

Then you simply put it the IPv4 address as you would now.

That won't work once the changeover is complete; IIRC, the IPv4 system itself will be shut down, and no addresses in that format will work.

Although I admit there aren't too many websites which exist *only* as IP addresses and have no names.

 

[Canadave]

Well for IP addresses, copy and paste will always be an option.

I'm not following...

I mean if you need to know your own IP address in IPv6, you can just copy\paste. It may not be possible to memorize it or easily transcribe it, but it's not like it'll be invisible.

 

[Lindley]

^ But what about when you might need to input an IPv4 address directly? Some websites have only the address number and no name.

Then you simply put it the IPv4 address as you would now.

That won't work once the changeover is complete; IIRC, the IPv4 system itself will be shut down, and no addresses in that format will work.

Although I admit there aren't too many websites which exist *only* as IP addresses and have no names.

IPv4 and IPv6 have coexisted side-by-side for years now. The exhaustion of address space was foreseen. There's no particular reason the two couldn't continue to cooexist for years to come.

However, an IPv6 address is in effect unreadable by equipment set up to handle IPv4 addresses, which comprises pretty much every piece of computer and network equipment on sale, apart from newer computers running Microsoft's Windows 7 or Apple's Mac OS X, and most smartphones. Older system such as PCs running the ten-year-old Windows XP – still in widespread use – and the broadband modems used in households cannot understand IPv6 addresses without special configuration that would defeat most users.

So, the solution is simple: Microsoft just needs to push out an XP patch which configures it for IPv6....

 

[Marc]

Then you simply put it the IPv4 address as you would now.

That won't work once the changeover is complete; IIRC, the IPv4 system itself will be shut down, and no addresses in that format will work.

Although I admit there aren't too many websites which exist *only* as IP addresses and have no names.

IPv4 and IPv6 have coexisted side-by-side for years now. The exhaustion of address space was foreseen. There's no particular reason the two couldn't continue to cooexist for years to come.

I very much doubt given the proliferation of IPv6 that we're going to see it suddenly disappear overnight overtime like any older technology it will be phased out.

In fact according to the wiki article on IPv6, it's penetration is only 1% at this point in time.

As I said earlier, the OP is making a mountain out of a mole hill.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Besides getting over the problem with blocks of IPv4 addresses running out, the other big reasons to switch to IPv6 are to simplify routing and to support QoS, IPSec, and a few other things that weren't possible in IPv4.

More information than you ever probably wanted to know is available here:

http://ipv6.com/index.htm

 

[Marc]

Besides getting over the problem with blocks of IPv4 addresses running out, the other big reasons to switch to IPv6 are to simplify routing and to support QoS, IPSec, and a few other things that weren't possible in IPv4.

More information than you ever probably wanted to know is available here:

http://ipv6.com/index.htm

um I'm pretty sure both IPSec and QoS are both doable with IPv4 - do you mean that IPv6 will do the better perchance?

IPv6 would supposedly negate the need for NAT because every computer in the world would be able to have it's on unique, routable IP address but given the security implications I don't think things will quite go that way.

 

[JarodRussell]

Apparently the last of the IPv4 addresses have been, or soon will be, allocated. So it looks like the final switchover to IPv6 will have to commence quick. Linky

My question is this: Will we all have to get new cable modems and/or routers, to handle it? (I'm guessing our OSes will already work; there seems to be an option for IPv6 in Mac OS X)

My ISP is Cox, and their FAQ on this issue says that they are trying to make the changeover 'invisible' to consumers. How can they do this? The systems of IPv4 and IPv6 are so different that I always thought we, the users, would need new modems. Is this the case, or not?

Unless your modem is, like, a thousand years old, you won't have any problems.