I have a new notebook with Windows Vista Home Premium installed. I noticed
when I view Network Properties, I see that Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IP
v6) has been selected as well as TCP/IP v4. What is TCP/IP v6? Do I need it to
search the web?
You don’t need it yet, but someday you will. How soon? Good question.
Why?
Because 4 billion isn’t a big enough number.
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IP, or “Internet Protocol”, is best recognized by the way it assigns “IP
addresses” to devices on the internet. An IP version 4 address, the current
common technology, is a 32 bit number, represented by 4 numbers separated by
periods. 207.46.197.32 is an example of an IP address (this one, assigned to
the domain microsoft.com).
A 32 bit number can represent up to 4 billion different IP addresses. In
reality the number is somewhat less, since some numbers and digits have
reserved meanings.
As it turns out, 4 billion isn’t enough. Because of the way that IP
addresses are assigned and used, I’ve heard we may “run out” of IP addresses in
several years.
Enter IP version 6, or IPv6. IP version 6 introduces many additional
features, but the most notable one is that an IPv6 address is 128 bits long
instead of 32. While that seems like it’s only 4 times larger, it’s not. It
represents 3.4×1038 different IP addresses.
Put another way:
IPv4: 4,294,967,296 addresses
IPv6: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses.
soon.”
(That’s 4 billion times 4 billion times 4 billion times 4 billion – where “4
billion” is in computer terms using powers of 2, or 4,294,967,296.)
When you start seeing them, you’ll see IPv6 addresses as groups of 4
hexadecimal digits separated by colons. 2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7334
is a valid IPv6 address. It turns out they’ve also created some shorthand so
all IPv6 addresses, while still 128 bits in length, may not be represented by a
string quite that long.
We’re not likely to run out of IPv6 addresses any time soon.
Will you be forced to switch? Someday, maybe. The good news is that for now
it’s pretty transparent, and you probably won’t be affected for some time.
There actually is some IPv6 traffic on the internet already, using techniques
to coexist with the IPv4 traffic.
The fact that you’re seeing an IPv6 protocol available within Windows is
actually good news, because it means that one major part of the infrastructure
of the internet – millions and millions of Windows based PCs – are ready to
go.
But for now, I’d just leave it enabled and otherwise ignore it.
I recently had this appear in my wireless network connection properties.
Now on a fresh reboot the TCPSVCS.exe takes over the computer and bogs it to no speed and just shy of over heating. I have shortcuted the task manager to my desktop so I can open it with a click and end process. This gives relief but what am I supposed to do to allow it to run?
Any thoughts Thanks Clay.
If you are using windows xp AND use a dial-up connection for internet, beware of ipv6. See this article – Freeze-UP Dial-Up Networking Problem. I had the problem described there, and had to uninstall ipv6 to fix it.
Just out of curiosity, is there any reason to leave TCP/IP v6 enabled while it is still not in common use? Is there anything significant out there that is making any use of it?
How i can set the static ip at ipv6 in the local area connection properties. Please send me a screenshort for any ip range with subnet mask and alternate dns.
Wating for your reply.
Thanks.