IPv6 - should I be enabling it?

[kosymodo]

I've recently taken up a new FTTP connection with Aquiss, who, as standard, offer static IPv6 addresses (if requested). I'm wondering whether I should be requesting these, as IPv6 has been many years in the making, and seems to be pretty mainstream these days. Are there any actual benefits to me as a consumer enabling IPv6? Anything I need to consider before requesting?

 

[kindai]

No drawbacks, various benefits though. Do it.

 

[kosymodo]

No drawbacks, various benefits though. Do it.

Thanks! To help me understand, what are the benefits to me? I know the benefit of IPv6 in general, being that it vastly increases the number of IP addresses available, but how does that translate into benefits for little old me?

 

[Caged]

Even if you only do it to learn how it works it's worth doing. Getting rid of NAT is great.

 

[kosymodo]

Even if you only do it to learn how it works it's worth doing. Getting rid of NAT is great.

Ahhhh, OK, I'm beginning to understand...I didn't realise IPv6 didn't require NAT

 

[Caged]

It will be good when games support it properly to allow direct connections between players without dodgy UPnP workarounds, let the IPv4-only users suffer degraded performance and rely on the noise they make forcing the hand of ISPs.

 

[kindai]

Thanks! To help me understand, what are the benefits to me? I know the benefit of IPv6 in general, being that it vastly increases the number of IP addresses available, but how does that translate into benefits for little old me?

Copy pasted but to name a few:

1. More Efficient Routing
   IPv6 reduces the size of routing tables and makes routing more efficient and hierarchical. IPv6 allows ISPs to aggregate the prefixes of their customers' networks into a single prefix and announce this one prefix to the IPv6 Internet. In addition, in IPv6 networks, fragmentation is handled by the source device, rather than the router, using a protocol for discovery of the path's maximum transmission unit (MTU).
2. More Efficient Packet Processing
   IPv6's simplified packet header makes packet processing more efficient. Compared with IPv4, IPv6 contains no IP-level checksum, so the checksum does not need to be recalculated at every router hop. Getting rid of the IP-level checksum was possible because most link-layer technologies already contain checksum and error-control capabilities. In addition, most transport layers, which handle end-to-end connectivity, have a checksum that enables error detection.
3. Directed Data Flows
   IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast. Multicast allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows (like multimedia streams) to be sent to multiple destinations simultaneously, saving network bandwidth. Disinterested hosts no longer must process broadcast packets. In addition, the IPv6 header has a new field, named Flow Label, that can identify packets belonging to the same flow.
4. Simplified Network Configuration
   Address auto-configuration (address assignment) is built in to IPv6. A router will send the prefix of the local link in its router advertisements. A host can generate its own IP address by appending its link-layer (MAC) address, converted into Extended Universal Identifier (EUI) 64-bit format, to the 64 bits of the local link prefix.
5. Support For New Services
   By eliminating Network Address Translation (NAT), true end-to-end connectivity at the IP layer is restored, enabling new and valuable services. Peer-to-peer networks are easier to create and maintain, and services such as VoIP and Quality of Service (QoS) become more robust.
6. Security
   IPSec, which provides confidentiality, authentication and data integrity, is baked into in IPv6. Because of their potential to carry malware, IPv4 ICMP packets are often blocked by corporate firewalls, but ICMPv6, the implementation of the Internet Control Message Protocol for IPv6, may be permitted because IPSec can be applied to the ICMPv6 packets.

 

[kosymodo]

Copy pasted but to name a few:

1. More Efficient Routing
   IPv6 reduces the size of routing tables and makes routing more efficient and hierarchical. IPv6 allows ISPs to aggregate the prefixes of their customers' networks into a single prefix and announce this one prefix to the IPv6 Internet. In addition, in IPv6 networks, fragmentation is handled by the source device, rather than the router, using a protocol for discovery of the path's maximum transmission unit (MTU).
2. More Efficient Packet Processing
   IPv6's simplified packet header makes packet processing more efficient. Compared with IPv4, IPv6 contains no IP-level checksum, so the checksum does not need to be recalculated at every router hop. Getting rid of the IP-level checksum was possible because most link-layer technologies already contain checksum and error-control capabilities. In addition, most transport layers, which handle end-to-end connectivity, have a checksum that enables error detection.
3. Directed Data Flows
   IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast. Multicast allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows (like multimedia streams) to be sent to multiple destinations simultaneously, saving network bandwidth. Disinterested hosts no longer must process broadcast packets. In addition, the IPv6 header has a new field, named Flow Label, that can identify packets belonging to the same flow.
4. Simplified Network Configuration
   Address auto-configuration (address assignment) is built in to IPv6. A router will send the prefix of the local link in its router advertisements. A host can generate its own IP address by appending its link-layer (MAC) address, converted into Extended Universal Identifier (EUI) 64-bit format, to the 64 bits of the local link prefix.
5. Support For New Services
   By eliminating Network Address Translation (NAT), true end-to-end connectivity at the IP layer is restored, enabling new and valuable services. Peer-to-peer networks are easier to create and maintain, and services such as VoIP and Quality of Service (QoS) become more robust.
6. Security
   IPSec, which provides confidentiality, authentication and data integrity, is baked into in IPv6. Because of their potential to carry malware, IPv4 ICMP packets are often blocked by corporate firewalls, but ICMPv6, the implementation of the Internet Control Message Protocol for IPv6, may be permitted because IPSec can be applied to the ICMPv6 packets.

Thanks again! To be fair, most of that is beyond my understanding, but greater efficiency has got to be a win!

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Thanks again! To be fair, most of that is beyond my understanding, but greater efficiency has got to be a win!

Not if you don’t understand what it’s doing you won’t. If you non technical then you probably need to learn what it does before asking should you use IPV6 or stick with IPV4.

What I mean is; will it benefit you? Well only you know the answer. But not until you learn what it does better.

 

[kosymodo]

Not if you don’t understand what it’s doing you won’t. If you non technical then you probably need to learn what it does before asking should you use IPV6 or stick with IPV4.

What I mean is; will it benefit you? Well only you know the answer. But not until you learn what it does better.

Thanks - everyone has to start from a position of little understanding at some point. I'm on the route to understanding, aided by helpful folk

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Thanks - everyone has to start from a position of little understanding at some point. I'm on the route to understanding, aided by helpful folk

Networking isn't easy, it takes a little while to get your head around how it works. If you don't want to learn then sticking with something known to work is alright.

 

[kosymodo]

In any case, it seems actually enabling IPv6 is somewhat of a challenge. I have it enabled at ISP level, but having challenges enabling it a local level (i.e my router level). Neither DHCPv6 or SLAAC seem to be working on my Archer D9. However, I'll keep tinkering and will get it working sooner or later I'm sure. As per my ISP - "Welcome to the world of IPv6 and getting it to work!"

 

[gpuerrilla]

Well its been around for long enough, what more than 20 years? I still have the odd instance that when you disable it on a workstation the issues seem to disappear lol but from what I gather with older network engineers is its not really championed like the way some would shout about.

 

[On Holiday]

 

[kosymodo]

So I'm back on the case on trying to enable IPv6 on my TP-Link Archer D9. Aquiss are looking for TP-Link users to try and get IPv6 working, so I said I'd have another go.

The issue is that the IPv6 status is always 'connecting', so something's wrong in the settings somewhere I reckon. Any ideas where I might start to diagnose the problem? Anyone got a TP-Link router and using IPv6?