How much is IP V6 addressing being used?
Just how much IP V6 addressing is really in typical use out there?
I see that Linux/UNIX seems to be ready for this. But I don't see the readiness as much as the Windows side. Especially not for desktop user systems.
In my wanderings I have not seen IPV6 widely implemented or used.
Personally, I'm not quite thrilled with the addresses syntax as it is longer, and reminds me of MAC addresses with all the :'s.
Secondary question: Are we all ready to use IPV6 in our daily lives?
Thanks.
Solution 1:
OS support is probably not the concern. Vista, XP, Solaris 10 and Linux all support IPv6, and the root DNS servers have all been updated to support AAAA records.
There are three things that are more likely to act as barriers to adoption.
Network support: Upgrading infrastructure to support IPv6 is a massive undertaking. It probably won't be complete for years. Until then, there will be a need to tunnel; initially, IPv6 tunneled over IPv4; eventually the reverse as the IPv6 connected network becomes larger than the IPv4.
Application support: In a perfect world, most consumer facing applications shouldn't care about Layer 3; that's what DNS is for. Unfortunately, there are plenty of applications out there written with IP addresses hardcoded into them, that use IP addresses in their data structures, etc. Re-writing or replacing these tools will also take a very long time.
NAT: One of the main design goals of IPv6 was to overcome the depletion of IPv4 space. Unfortunately, before IPv6 could be finalised and implemented, NAT combined with RFC 1918 address space provided a way for companies and individuals to connect large numbers of devices to the public internet without the need for registered address space. Like it or loathe it, NAT has grown from a stop-gap solution to a 'feature' of IPv4, with people even relying upon it for security. More discussion can be found in this question.
Solution 2:
From Microsoft's IPv6 page:
Support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), a new suite of standard protocols for the Network layer of the Internet, is built into the latest versions of Microsoft Windows, which include Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows XP with Service Pack 1, Windows XP Embedded SP1, and Windows CE .NET.
That doesn't sound too bad to me. Admittedly it doesn't say how well it's supported, but that's a different matter.
As for actual use: not a lot, in my experience.