What’s Up with IPv6?
From Wikipedia:
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks. It is designated as the successor of IPv4, the current version of the Internet Protocol, for general use on the Internet.
The standards for IPv6 were complete in the mid 90’s, yet the adoption rate is next to 0. I can’t even remember the last time I read an article about it. What happened to it? Well, support for IPv6 has been quietly added to Windows, Linux, and OS X. Networks have sprung up all over the world that operate exclusively on IPv6. Unfortunately, most of the world is still schlumping along on the old protocol.
Why is this happening? Why do we build all our shiny new castles on top of a moldy old foundation? Who are the hold outs? Will we ever see IPv6 go mainstream? Time will tell.
April 24th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
There are several main reasons:
1) IPv6 adds a ton of new features, and thus, complexities. It’s difficult for average users (even techies) to get into it.
2) Very few ISPs offer IPv6 end-points. You still need a real route to make use of IPv6, and if you’re a regular user, you need to tunnel IPv6 through IPv4 by getting an account with an IPv6 Broker. It’s often free, but the main problem is that not only does IPv6 have some additional overhead, but you have the overhead of being encapsulated in IPv4.
3) One of the MAJOR reasons IPv6 was born, was the threat of running out of IPv4 address space! However, we’ve mostly solved that problem by introducing NAT, dynamic IPs, and requiring legitimate reasons for people to have blocks of IPs.
IPv6 *IS* coming, just slowly. If I had to gamble, I’d say you won’t see it ubiquitous until the IPv4 address space is near completely used.
-Kevin