IPv6 Act Now

If you are using Internet or almost any computer network you will likely using IPv4 packets. IPv4 uses 32-bit source and destination address fields. We are actually running out of addresses but have not fear, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is here with IPv6.

The IPv6 packet (Fig. 1) doesn’t look much like its IPv4 (Fig. 2) cousin, except for the leading version field. The IPv6 address fields are 128-bits. The larger address space is one reason to migrate to IPv6 but there are many more differences that give IPv6 an advantage. For example, the header checksum field has been eliminated because transport reliability has gone up and its overhead was unnecessary.

The movement to IPv6 on a global scale is inevitable. It has been more of an issue of getting the infrastructure in place to make the move to cause the minimal number of problems. It is possible for IPv4 and IPv6 subnets to exchange traffic but there are issues that vary depending upon the network configuration and the type of network traffic.

More from Electronic Design…

Leading internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day.

IPv6 is the new net address system that replaces the current protocol IPv4, which is about to run out of spaces to allocate.

Web companies participating in the event have pledged to enable IPv6 on their main websites from that date.

The Internet Society, which made the announcement, said the day represented “a major milestone” in the deployment of the standard.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo are the inaugural web firms involved.

More from BBC News…

For the moment I am going to assume there is more sensationalism than fact in the prediction the world is going to end this year. If the doomsayers turn out to be correct, following the advice in this piece won’t matter because Earth won’t be here.

And yet in one way, at least for the Internet, we should all be seen that R.E.M. song It’s the End of the World As We Know It. Several years ago the IT industry press gave considerable coverage to the fact we were running out of IPv4 Internet addresses. This is the year that happens, fulll stop.

And continuing with that famous song I quote “and I feel fine.”

It appears sensationalism sells. What does it really mean to us running out of Internet addresses? In reality, a whole lot of nothing.

That’s because it’s old news, and we have been planning for a long time. IPv6 is coming to town. I first wrote about it in one of my technical manuals over 10 years ago. In fact, I took that manual and some others and put them online with the help of my buddy Charles, eight years ago.

More from TRCB News…

Last year, a number of the worlds largest companies transferred IPv6 for 24 hours as a test run to determine whether it would work as predicted. June the 8th came and went without the Internet breaking, companies imploding, or the sky falling in – much to the relief of the pro-IPv6 camp.

Six months down the track, leading Internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day, with web companies participating in the event pledging to enable IPv6 on their main websites from said date.

The Internet Society, which made the announcement, said the day represented; “a major milestone” in the deployment of the standard with Facebook, Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo set to be the inaugural web firms involved.

More from Business Computing World…

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Yahoo have pledged to support the worldwide launch of IPv6 on 6 June 2012 for the permanent activation of the Internet standard in the companies’ products and services.

After a successful IPv6 day in June 8 of last year, the companies will now be joining the “World IPv6 Launch” day on June 6.

More from Social Barrel…

2011 was a key year in the deployment of IPv6, the next generation of Internet technology used for addressing. IPv4, the existing address allocation system, ran out of unused IP address blocks in February which saw the final five address blocks being allocated to regional registries. ISPs will now find it difficult to get new IP address blocks and they will be encouraged to roll out IPv6 instead. Some have already started this, and you can read more about the differences, and who supports IPv6 in our IPv6 guide.

More from thinkbroadband…

The urgent push to move the whole of Internet addresses off of a system never intended to replace telephone, television, and computing simultaneously, and onto the IPv6 address system, is now entering its 13th consecutive blockbuster year. Despite high-level government recommendations for action plans, a global DNS poisoning scare that many say could never have happened under IPv6, and a grass-roots effort to build an actual holiday around the transition, it’s estimated that the rate at which the Asia/Pacific region is depleting IPv4 addresses is far outpacing the rate that hosts in that region are moving to IPv6.

It’s almost as if everyone wants a real Internet, but too few want to lend a hand in building it. Now the Internet Society, its original non-profit guidance organization, is stepping up its push to make IPv6 more marketable, first with the launch of a new Web site called Deploy360, to be followed up next week with meetings with consumer electronics vendors at CES in Las Vegas.

More from Read Write Web…

Much of our current thinking about networking for physical security systems lags behind the advances of technology. Because advancements come more rapidly every year, it is no longer sufficient to base our thinking on “the latest technology.”

We have to take technology trends into account if we wish to deploy systems that will have useful lives of 5 to 10 years, and which can use and be used by new technology as it arrives in the coming decade.

In the late 1990s, there was much activity in the Internet standards community. The dot-com boom was rolling, use of the Internet was expanding, and commerce-based cryptography and security standards were just being developed. Many network protocols were devised, refined and/or standardized during this time. Among these was IPv6, the solution to IPv4 address limitation as well as a logical evolution of the Internet for many reasons.

More from SecurityInfoWatch…

IPv4 is the most commonly used Internet layer protocol and at the writing of this article is used by the vast majority of devices connected to the Internet.

There are over four billion possible IPv4 addresses that can be used.  However due to the increase in usages of smartphones, laptops and tablets, theses addresses are running out quickly.

Earlier in the year the IANA announced that “The future of the Internet is in IPv6. All Internet stakeholders must now take definitive action to deploy IPv6.” This is due to the last IPv4 addresses having been allocated.  At Evolving Networks we believe that in 2012, the switch over from IPv4 to IPv6 will begin to gather serious momentum.

So what is IPv6 and how is it different to its predecessor?

More from Industry Today…

Comcast continues to extend its leadership role in the adoption of next-generation Internet services with the news that it has expanded its production IPv6 deployment into four more states — Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey — over the past six weeks.

Comcast made the announcement here yesterday at a technical seminar sponsored by Network World called “The Critical Path to IPv6.”

Comcast launched its production IPv6 deployment on Oct. 31 in the East Bay area of San Francisco with 100 customers. Now Comcast says it has more than 1,000 users of IPv6 nationwide.

More from NetworkWorld…