IPv6 day coming Wednesday 8th June 2011

Wednesday 8th June 2011 is IPv6 day. But what is it and could it affect your business?

An IP address is a set of numbers that uniquely identifies any device which connects to the internet. Currently the system of numbering is IPv4, but the numbers allocated under this system are running out fast, and will probably be exhausted by August.

IPv6 is its replacement, a 64-bit numbering system, and will provide a huge boost in available numbers. IPv6 provides enough addresses (340 trillion) to allow the internet to continue to expand.

However, because IPv6 is different to IPv4 there is a chance of some connectivity being lost in the changeover. IPv4 and IPv6 devices cannot communicate directly. That is why on Wednesday some of the big players in the internet industry, such as Google and Facebook, are making their sites available under the new protocol. If you can connect to them on Wednesday it is likely that your current set up supports IPv6.

Most internet users will not notice any difference, however Google anticipates up to 1% of failed connection attempts on the day, mainly due to misconfigured devices.

Business networks may not fare so well though. Recent research suggests that very few businesses are completely ready for the change to IPv6. Only 12% of network professionals thought that their networks were 80-100% ready for the change.

As well as internet/broadband issues other devices such as those used in IP telephony will also need to be migrated to IPv6 at some point in the future.

Posted in: Broadband , Data Solutions , Mobile Data , Solutions