With approximately 4 billion Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses depleted, the world is gearing up for the transition to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
In contrast to IPv4, IPv6 offers a staggering volume of addresses, in excess of one billion per person – they’re bound to last quite some time.
June 8th, 2011 will bring with it
World IPv6 Day, with a range of companies including Microsoft, already committed to delivering content over IPv6 in order to test post-IPv4 readiness.
The software giant’s Bing.com and Xbox.com will be among the other web properties participating in World IPv6 Day. This means that the Redmond company will enable connectivity via IPv6, going "dual-stack,” in addition to also supplying traditional IPv4 connectivity.
Users don’t have to do anything special in order to prepare for World IPv6 Day other than go about their business as usual. Provided that they’re running Windows 7, or any of the supported versions of Windows, customers already have everything they need to seamlessly transition to IPv6.
“Most people won't even notice World IPv6 Day. If you have no IPv6 connectivity, then you will continue to work as before,” revealed
Christopher Palmer, from the Windows Networking team.
“If you happen to have IPv6 connectivity, then your connectivity to participating websites will automatically shift over to IPv6. Here at Windows, we’ve been working on IPv6 support since Windows XP. Windows Vista and Windows 7 are automatically enabled to use IPv6 when it is provided by your ISP and your local network.”
As with all new technologies that are yet to be ubiquitous in terms of adoption and usage, some problems are expected. Microsoft does expect to see some issues around IPv6 "Brokenness."
“One thing that we hope to assess and isolate is how many users might lose network connectivity when accessing web sites that support dual IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity, a situation called "IPv6 Brokenness." For example, it is possible that a misconfiguration of your Internet connection can make it hard for your computer and browser to pick the right IP address to contact,” Palmer said.
Estimates reveal that less than 0.1% of Internet users will be affected negatively by "IPv6 Brokenness."
Palmer set up a test on
this blog post designed to perform an IPv6 Connectivity Analysis. Essentially, the test is focused on ensuring the users are ready for World IPv6 Day. At the same time, customers can test IPv6- only connectivity, but they should not expect to pass this one as easily as the first.
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