IPv6

I just attended an internet expo last week and there was one presentation / discussion about IPv6. However it seems like I didn't fully understand that. Will IPv6 come and replace IPv4 as we have today? If so when will that be / what changes must be made?

I assume a lot of scripts won't work anymore due to that.

wsjb78

This is a great questions and one that everyone NEEDS to be concerned about too!

Just for those of you who dont know what IPv6 is..

The internet currently operates on IPv4 (pftt) meaning that every IP address has 4 sub string ie... 123.456.789.10 now in order for the WWW to actually work every site address i.e, http://www. needs to be matched up to an IP address and this is where the problems have started to occur.

30 years ago when the web was first invented by Tim Berners-Lee it was actually only supposed to be used by governments to pass information across to each other in a more timely manner however, the huge potential of the internet became realized and slowly but surely, it evolved into the huge web we know today.

Now because of this huge growth IP numbers have started to run out, i fact, if truth be known, they started to run out some 4-5 years ago when this issue was first realized.

In an effort to 'correct' this problem several solutions were discussed and the main solution that everyone thought was the best way of going about 'creating' more IP addresses was the IPv6 one.

In essence, this means that once this new system goes into effect all IP addresses granted after the current ones run out (expected to happen in around 3 years time) will have six sub string so for example an IP address in 5 years time may look like...

123.456.789.101.112.131

This basically quadruples the amount of IP addresses web hosts can use.

Now as Wsjb78 mentioned, as it stands it is still unclear as to first of all, how these new ip ranges will come into effect and secondly, how they will be issued so that they do work with the existing databse.

The most likely case will be that these are used for new programs much like how Microsoft XP meant that software companies needed to re-write thier applications and software packages.

Anyway to answer your question lol

As it stands right now all of this is still in its 'infancy' however, many software packages are now being shipped with IPv6 recognition already built into them including, Apple, Linux, FreeBSD and many other programming languages too so at least for the time being, we can rest assured that there should be no immediate concerns however, im sure that we will hear more of this in the near future.

Regards,

Lee

One small addition to your explanation Lee:

Right now IPv4 constis of 4 bundels with possible values of 0-255

IPv6 will be hexadeciaml I think. This means you will get a lot more values in one bundle than it is now.

Actually I just did the maths.

IPv4 has 256^4 different IPs available (however not all are accessible). That's more than 4.2 billion IPs

IPv6 has (16^4)^6 IPs : 7.92282E+28

Awesome explanations, guys, but one thing that has not been touched on is that IPv6 has been around for quite a few years now (at least 5 years) and slowly but surely all internet connected devices have been upgraded to include IPv6 compatability. But the hardest part will be the changeover, since it almost has to happen in sync across the whole internet. I know that was the big stumbling block when it was first thought of, but I am sure that some smart techies have come up with a patch solution....after all, us techies are real smart!


cheers,

Luke

this is what IPv6 will look like

3ffe:0501:0008:0000:0260:97ff:fe40:efab
ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001

such a jibberish

i really like IPv4 much easier to type

in asia ISPs have begun using IPv6. think the Japanese and Thaiwan are using it since last year. Not widely adopted but it's live