Yes, I’ve set myself out to learn IPv6. I thought it was simple – or at least with my understanding of IPv4. I was completely wrong! IPv6 has a much more complicated addressing scheme and “rules”. It requires a change of mindset for a start. The worst part? Getting it all to tunnel through IPv4 when you’re running dynamic IP.

Anyhow, I’ve got my Linux (CentOS 5) box working and my home network is now “IPv6 ready” (hooray!) but I’m still tweaking the settings so I’ll update the technical stuff later.

Some little bits about IPv6 I’ve learnt so far is that DHCP servers aren’t really required anymore. Interfaces can self-assign an IP based on their MAC address and this will be almost certainly unique (since MAC addresses are unique). Even in a controlled network, the interface would assign it’s own address.

Meanwhile, here’s my traceroute to ipv6.google.com. 😀

traceroute6: Warning: ipv6.l.google.com has multiple addresses; using 2404:6800:8005::63
traceroute6 to ipv6.l.google.com (2404:6800:8005::63) from XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:1:217:f2ff:fe40:3848, 64 hops max, 12 byte packets
1  XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:1::1  0.534 ms  0.392 ms  0.410 ms
2  2002:c058:6301::1  199.142 ms  199.858 ms  199.485 ms
3  2001:470:0:13b::1  201.157 ms  200.728 ms  198.965 ms
4  2001:504:d::1f  197.870 ms  199.858 ms  199.927 ms
5  2001:4860::1:0:21  290.454 ms  203.619 ms  264.787 ms
6  2001:4860::1:0:77d  220.451 ms  220.804 ms  436.060 ms
7  2001:4860::1:0:75  511.964 ms  511.896 ms  320.166 ms
8  2001:4860::1:0:16  703.447 ms  399.187 ms  624.945 ms
9  2001:4860::2:0:119c  511.687 ms *
2001:4860::2:0:119b  529.863 ms
10  2001:4860:0:1::e3  403.409 ms  517.593 ms  400.969 ms
11  * * *

Hop 11 seems to have packet filtering and dropped my traceroute.

I’ve also masked my internal LAN IP to XXXX:XXXX:XXXX otherwise somebody could connect back to my LAN segment. I haven’t had time to figure out the firewall yet. But you can say this is the beauty of IPv6. With a 128 bit address space, every machine has a public routable address.

Once I have my home network all ready I will begin transitioning all my servers to IPv6. Embrace technology.