Microsoft's new operating system Vista is reported to have both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols bound on installation. The Internet has been using IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) for the last 20 years. Although IPv4 is still working well, for the most part, the Internet is beginning to run out of room. IPv6, which is scheduled to run along side IPv4 during a transition period of several years, will alleviate that problem. Running out of room is really just an analogy. Each and every device connected to the Internet has an IP address and these are becoming scarce. The problem was eased by ISP's (Internet Service Providers) use of NAT routers (Network Address Translators) to use their individual blocks of IP addresses more efficiently. When installed the NAT router is assigned an IP address and customers connect to the Internet via this router sharing the one IP address
Backing up a bit, Internet Protocol is the IP part of TCP/IP, which is what makes the web work. The web addresses we are most familiar with, http://www.whatever.com, are for human use. Under IPv4 these are translated into numbers of the form xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (4 blocks of 3 digits) by DNS (Dynamic Name Service) servers. Now that IP addresses have been more or less defined, let's take a closer look at IPv4 and IPv6.
The major difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is that IPv4 has a 32 bit address space, while IPv6 has an address space of 128 bits. The total number of addresses for IPv4 is 4,294,967,296. IPv6 has 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 unique addresses. Twenty years ago 4 billion addresses was plenty. Since then there has been a PC boom and more and more devices are being made that connect to the Internet. This has gobbled up a globally shared resource.
To accommodate the additional address space in IPv6, a change was necessary. The dotted-decimal addresses of IPv4, the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx form previously described, is replaced in IPv6 with eight groups of four hexadecimal numbers with the groups being separated by a colon. Hexadecimal numbers use the digits "0" through "9" and the letters "a" through "f". This scheme will take the appearance xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx and has a range from "0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000" to "ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff". In contrast, the IPv4 addresses range from "000.000.000.000" to "255.255.255.255", which when converted to the hexadecimal system is "00.00.00.00" to "ff.ff.ff.ff".
In use, the numbers from the IP address notations are concatenated (spliced together) to form the IPv4 32 bit address or the IPv6 128 bit address. In the case of Ipv4, the "ff.ff.ff.ff" concatenates to ffffffff which is the equivalent of 4,294,967,295. Since counting was started at 0, add one to this for the maximum 4,294,967,296 IP addresses.
To be sure, there have been more changes made than increasing the address space and modifying the address notation but hopefully, this brief excursion into the technical world will explain the significance of the inclusion of IPv6 in Windows Vista. In depth details can be found on Wikipedia. Also the Security Now net cast Episodes 25 and 26 How the Internet Works is a good source of information on this subject. While at that site you might want to get Episode 3 which covers NAT routers. Episodes 27-29 contain discussion of LAN's (Local Area Networks). There is also a web site dedicated to IPv6 IPv6.org
As mentioned earlier Windows Vista will have IPv6 installed by default, while IPv6 is available for Windows XP it isn't installed by default and has to be added manually. If you wish to add this protocol from the "Network Connections" window right click your Internet Connection and select "properties" from the pop up menu.
Next, on the row of tabs toward the top, click on the tab labeled "Networking". This should give you a window similar to the view below.
On this window click the button labeled "Install" located toward the bottom of the window. This opens the "Select Component Type" dialog.
On this dialog click "Protocol" to highlight/select it then click the button labeled "Add".
How IPv6 Protocol is listed on the Select Protocol dialog is determined by your version of Windows XP and which Service Packs were installed or embedded. Windows XP Professional with embedded SP1 will list it as "Microsoft IPv6 Developer Edition". XP embedded with Service Pack 2 lists this Protocol as "Microsoft TCP/IP version 6" Whichever is listed on your dialog, click on it to select it then click the "OK" button. Your computer will work for a moment or two and then you will see this next screen.
Click the "Yes" button to restart your computer. When your system has restarted the new Protocol will be in place.
With Windows XP Home Edition or older editions of XP Professional, the IPv6 Protocol will not be listed on the "Select Protocol" dialog, which is why it wasn't shown on the screen shot of this dialog on this page. Those of us with older editions of XP will have to resort to the "Command Prompt" to install IPv6.
To open a command window/console click your "Start" button. On the "Start Menu" click "Run" as indicated by the red arrow to the right. This opens the "Run" dialog box as shown below.
In the text slot labeled "Open:" type "cmd", without the quotes as is shown, then click the "OK" button.
The result is the "Command Shell Window". The one shown here has been resized to conserve drive space and decrease down load time and the "***'s" will be replaced with your user name. To the right of the > you will see a blinking underscore, which is referred to as the cursor on this type of window. This is where you will enter "commands" as follows:
netsh interface ipv6 install
When the above command line has been typed in as shown hit your "Enter" key. This starts the installation process of the IPv6 Protocol. When finished the command shell responds with "OK" and a new command prompt. Now type "exit" at the prompt and hit your "Enter" key and the "Command Shell Window" disappears. The new Protocol is installed but you still have to restart your computer before it takes affect.
To use either of these installation techniques, you must be logged onto Windows with an account that has "Administrator" privileges. If you run into trouble this would be the first thing to check. To remove the IPv6 Protocol use:
netsh interface ipv6 uninstall
For systems that for some reason or other do not have any Service Packs installed the command line to be used is shortened to "ipv6 install" for installation or "ipv6 uninstall" to remove the Protocol
For those, with versions of Windows XP new enough to show the IPv6 Protocol in the properties dialog, that wish to remove Ipv6 can do so by clicking on the IPv6 Protocol to select/highlight it then clicking the "Uninstall" button as indicated in the graphic on the left.
Installation of the IPv6 Protocol is not something you need to do immediately. This article was aimed at the curious but sometime in the future the process described here will become necessary and it isn't a bad idea to know what to do in advance.
Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.
