What is Digg?67 Comments
- swordedge, on 11/14/2008, -1/+55IPv6 being turned on does not equal usage. There are almost no places in the US where it would connect to anything so can not be considered an active IPv6 computer. Also, Vista has IPv6 on by default too.
- grumpyrain, on 11/14/2008, -0/+34This is a strange title by ars. This isn't about there being more or less Macs, this is purely and simply that very few (home) routers are IP6 aware. If they were, then every Mac, Vista box and (most) Linux distros would use IP6. The Mac relationship comes via the Airport Extreme, a product quite likely to be paired with a Mac and unlikely to be paired with a Vista box.
- swordedge, on 11/14/2008, -3/+33The technology that allows you to connect to the web is call Internet Protocol or IP and is at version 4. Someone tried to do a version 5 a couple decades ago but it was promptly ignored. So to address a large number of issues, they came out with a new IP that is version 6. The area where this is most known to be rolling out is Asia. However, the protocols that allow IPv4 computers to go to IPv6 servers does not yet exist so rolling out IPv6 across the world is not happening very fast.
The most known improvement is the 128 bit address space but this is by no means the only improvement. IPv4 can address 4294967296 computers. IPv6 can address 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 computers.
In text this is Three Hundred Forty Undecillion Two Hundred Eighty Two Decillion Three Hundred Sixty Six Nonillion Nine Hundred Twenty Octillion Nine Hundred Thirty Eight Septillion Four Hundred Sixty Three Sextillion Four Hundred Sixty Three Quintillion Three Hundred Seventy Four Quadrillion Six Hundred Seven Trillion Four Hundred Thirty One Billion Seven Hundred Sixty Eight Million Two Hundred Eleven Thousand Four Hundred Fifty Six - niczar, on 11/13/2008, -2/+29My isp, free.fr, provides IPv6 to all its subscribers. They loan a Linux-based router (which also includes a VOiP to POTS adapter, an high definition PVR with a 80G hard drive, 802.11n access point and 100baseT switch) to all their customers, so most can enjoy publicly routed addresses for all their equipment. In fact every subscriber gets a /64. The only major problem is that the router doesn't provide a firewall for IPv6, unlike with IPv4.
- jivemasta, on 11/15/2008, -4/+18This is terribly inaccurate. Vista has ipv6 by default and probably has higher marketshare than OSX. Not to mention linux has had it since the standard was created. There is something skewing the data. I'm guessing it is some routers and ISPs not using ipv6 yet. All current OSes have ipv6, the problem is probably people still on XP and earlier, and huge legacy servers. Once those switch over, we could probably turn ipv4 off(that will be a crazy day).
- manacit2, on 11/15/2008, -1/+13They need to define "IPv6 capable", because anyone using an OS with the linux kernel from the last 4 years or so has the capability of using IPv6, via tunneling or another method...
Basically what they're saying is that most consumer routers are not IPv6 capable. If I hook my linux computer into an airport extreme it'll start using IPv6 too! - Inspiron700m, on 11/14/2008, -5/+16Uhh, can somebody translate this into laymans terms?
- kagebutsu, on 11/15/2008, -0/+9holy ballz I didn't even know undecillion was a word.
- mrsteveman1, on 11/15/2008, -0/+8hmmm maybe we DO want to be the france of the 21st century....
- swordedge, on 11/15/2008, -0/+8For now, you should not give a hoot. It will be many years before they roll it out in the US.
- zdiggler, on 11/15/2008, -1/+7don't matter because 99% of cable modem don't support IPV6
- ramenite, on 11/15/2008, -1/+6Just wrote a post saying the exact same thing. Lucky I happened to see this one so I could just delete it and dig you up.
I think the reason you don't see a lot of routers picking up IPv6, is that Linksys, Netgear, etc. don't have any firewalling they can put on their routers for IPv6. Even the open source firmwares like DD-WRT have pretty limited IPv6 support. Matter of fact--it was dropped in v24SP1--only available by a semi-fork of DD-WRT.
Windows firewalling also has a lot to be desired with IPv6. There are several services that listen on IPv6 by default, and with a public IP, you need a firewall on the system if you can't do it at the router. It's a lot to manage, and with nothing really needing IPv6, no reason to really put an effort into it.
The only real use for IPv6 today, would be to run things like local game servers, as in you wouldn't have to use nat to forward ports. But that requires everyone else to also use IPv6, and to have native IPv6 and not a 4to6 as the POP for a lot of 4to6's adds too much latency. - colincornaby, on 11/15/2008, -1/+6The difference is all of Apple's routers automatically route you to the IPV6 internet over the IPV4 internet. Most Mac users are likely to have Apple routers, hence the higher adoption.
Vista may have IPV6 on by default, but as long as those machines are all used on IPV4 networks, it doesn't do much good... - seanruiseil, on 11/15/2008, -4/+9You missed the bit about putting it in layman's terms. What's the news here and why should we care?
- AbeX, on 11/15/2008, -3/+7@voodoochild461:
writing it in hex has nothing to do with it. All IPs and all programs are represented as binary data inside a computer. The hex values are just what you see, the same as 0xAh = 10d = 1010b, they are the same represented differently. The real reason why IPv6 has more addresses is because it has two extra "host/client address space" (six instead of four)
Example:
IPv4: 1.2.3.4
IPv6: 1.2.3.4.5.6
Finally IPv4 can also be written in hex. Hex like decimal and binary is just a base they can be "converted" from one to another. This is only done for user friendliness, like I said inside the machine it's all binary. - Angostura, on 11/15/2008, -0/+4Not on my default though, I think.
- inactive, on 11/15/2008, -0/+4MAC (Media Access Control) and Mac (Apple Macintosh computer) are not one and the same.
- lrdntwnd, on 11/13/2008, -3/+7The article isn't saying China isn't in Asia... It's saying that compared to countries like the US and France, China is still behind. Now, I suppose you could consider Russia to be part of Asia, but I don't really think many people would do so.
- Murdats, on 11/15/2008, -0/+4unless you deal with IP's or networks the only difference you will see is that we can have MANY more devices connected to the internet as well as making it possible to simplify things like corporate networks.
basically if it effected you you would know what it measn. - toetagger, on 11/15/2008, -0/+3Russia spans two continents: Asia and Europe.
- inactive, on 11/15/2008, -0/+3I also have free.fr but didn't know about the IPv6 stuff. I went with them because of the 28Meg connection. Viva la Free!
- tHeSiD, on 11/15/2008, -0/+3shouldnt my isp support ipv6 before i can enable it?
- jivemasta, on 11/15/2008, -1/+4I would hope ipv6 is all we ever need. It allows enough IPs for like a couple billion per person in the world. In other words, ipv6 will probably be it for eternity.
- Snowknight26, on 11/15/2008, -0/+3That doesn't matter thanks to Teredo tunneling.
- zdiggler, on 11/15/2008, -1/+4Cable Modem don't support IPV6 If anything those are the one most needed to support ipv6. 253 unique ip address is enough for any house hold.
- ramenite, on 11/15/2008, -1/+4Just because it's "on" doesn't mean they actually get an IPv6 IP. You either get a /64 from your ISP, or your router has a /64 from the ISP or a 4to6 and hands them out. If you don't have either, it doesn't matter what the OS "supports" because it's not using it anyways.
This is measuring systems that actually DO have an IPv6 IP, and can reach IPv6 sites and services. - treed, on 11/15/2008, -1/+3XP supports v6, it just needs to be turned on. I have it working at my office across all our machines. The only things on our network that don't run v6 right now are the print server and scanner. Oh, and the iPhones. For some reason, even though Apple is otherwise a large supporter of IPv6, the iPhone doesn't support it.
- mstachiw, on 11/15/2008, -3/+5Wow I didn't realize so many Apple users in eastern europe.
In Russia, The MAC switches YOU! - hit9ent, on 11/15/2008, -0/+2that gave me a headache
- inactive, on 11/15/2008, -0/+2Yeah, but who knows. Nostalgia is a bitch.
Serious and geeky answer.. what if we actually end up colonizing other planets. As cynical as I can be, I'd like to think we're capable of doing that. - Giga, on 11/15/2008, -1/+3Vista too. And XP if you turn it on (functionality is there but not enabled by default).
- tremerevamp, on 11/15/2008, -0/+2one word: 6to4 . Which is how 'more macs = higher ipv6 usage' because airport extreme routers (which a few mac users have) have 6to4 on by default
And Comcast intends to use IPv6 to address its cable modems (its either doing it now, or real soon now). According to a presentation given at an IPv6 conference by a comcast engineer the private IP space didn't have enough IP's for them and now they are doing management IP's on a public subnet. See http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-54/presenta ...
If ISPs handed out v6 capable (and configured) CPE's the amount of machines visible on the v6 net would go up quickly. - grumpyrain, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2@sean,
There is a lot of confusion and misinformation in this thread.
IP addresses are like telephone numbers. IP4 is the addressing or numbering standard that has been used for the last 25 years. It allows up to 2^32 (2 to the power of 32) distinct addresses, which equals about 4 billion. There are actually about a billion addresses that are unusable due to reserved ranges and alike, so there are about 3 billion addresses. 25 years ago, no-one really envisaged 3 billion devices on a single network. Now we are looking at mobile phones with internet but with 6 billion people in the world, a massive increase in internet devices around the world (including mobile phones), simply put, they will run out.
From the laymans perspective, the most important part of IP6 is that the address space is so big that we will never run out (providing we don't need any more than 39614081257132168796771975168 addresses each ;) ).
There is nothing particularly wrong with it, except there
Every internet connected device - eviljolly, on 11/15/2008, -0/+2Apple didn't invent IPv6...
- HeavyWave, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1That's all cool but list of applications supporting IPv6 is tiny.
- PhailQuail, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1IPv6 means more internet numbers
- notnoisy, on 11/15/2008, -2/+3Actually, it is also a part of XP SP1 and above.
Full info from MS here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/network/bb53096 ... - voodoochild461, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1@ all of you, the whole point of my post was to try and level with people who don't really know about IPs. AbeX you did a great job of not explaining anything to people who don't know about IP and completely missing my point.
- homer420032003, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1Im I getting this right, this article looked at IPv6 and correlates it to being more Macs out there. Now why is it important (besides there being more macs)? serious question
- swordedge, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1no, they are one of many many that implemented it. IPv6 was written by the Internet Engineering Task Force. http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/OLD/ipv6-charter ...
Chances are MS and Apple both were in on creating the specs. There were literally many tens if not hundreds of corporations involved in writing, implementing, and testing the specs to make sure it can do the job intended of it. - smashingmonkey, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1Hmmm.... you know I *am* a lifetime Mac user. I wasn't making fun of Mac users or gay people. I was making fun of the stereotype itself. Ah whatever, I thought it was funny. Maybe I'm getting dug down for detracting from geek indulgence in a topic which really won't be that relevant for a few years at least.
- eviljolly, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1IP on everything!!
- jakem1, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1Oh come on! Everyone knows the next stage after trillion is bazillion.
- toetagger, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1The very large IPv6 address space supports 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses, or approximately 5×1028 (roughly 295) addresses for each of the roughly 6.5 billion (6.5×109) people alive today.[1] In a different perspective, this is 252 addresses for every observable star in the known universe[2] – more than seventy nine billion billion billion times as many addresses as IPv4 (232) supports.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6 - quantumstatejim, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1I would just like to point out that that if we ever need to go beyond IPv6 things will be extreme. You would be able to address something like every 1000 atoms on earth with a unique IP.
- awesometastic1, on 11/15/2008, -1/+1XP has IPv6 if i remember correctly it was included in SP2, but may have even been there before.
- harrisbradley, on 11/15/2008, -3/+3Didn't someone post this yesterday?
- niczar, on 11/15/2008, -1/+1Wrong wrong. AbeX and vuke69.
IPv4 addresses are 32 bits, or 4 bytes: 1.2.3.4
IPv6's are 128 bits: 01:23:45:67:89:AB:CD:EF -
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