What is IPv6 , do I need it, when can I get it.
IPv6 is the next generation protocol for the internet. Address space (your IP address) has been seen to be running out in its current form and if the future of the internet and its continued expansion rate were to continue, then a new system was needed. I wont at this stage expand on what is IPv6 and what it offers, this will come in a later issue. The point of this exercise is to get you up and running using the protocol. IPv6 is available now, mainly for testing purposes and for system admins etc to get early experience of it for when IPv6 is commercially available. The latest shutdown date for testing addresses is 6th June 2006 (666) by which time a good portion of ISPs will be offering Native (that is pure connections with the need for encapsulation into v4 packets - tunnels) services at that time. Currently very few ISPs are offering production addresses for IPv6.
What you will need for this tutorial :
- Windows XP Service Pack 1 or later
- A Client program for establishing a tunnel (explained below)
- An account with a tunnel provider (explained below)
Once connected to the internet via an IPv6 connection , you will be able to access IPv6 only websites that are not accessible via normal (IPv4 routes). I believe these are mainly configured this way as a means of testing your connectivity, a few perhaps are geared that way because of the subject matter, it just wouldn't interest anyone else. Some pages of miniTutorials.com, have been configured for both IPv4 and IPv6 access, so access is not limited in that respect, but I have mainly for the purposes of this tutorial, restricted some parts of the site to IPv6 only access. Once this tutorial is complete and successful then you will also be able to access these areas. I will list other IPv6 only websites at the end of this tutorial so you can carry on testing.
Step 1 - Confirm your lack of IPv6!
Go to http://www.sixxs.net/main - At the footer of the page will be 'non ssl ipv4 connection' followed by your IPv4 address.
http://www.kame.net - At the top of the page will be a static turtle image with the words 'If you migrate to IPv6 HTTP, you'll be able to view the dancing kame ' . At the footer of the page will be the words 'You are using IPv4'
We will revisit the above sites after the installation and see the difference.
Step 2 - Enable IPv6 support within Windows.
I am using Windows XP as an example because to be honest it is the easiest to explain at this stage, many other operating systems have IPv6 support built in, Windows 2000 has an unsupported stack that is downloadable, future tutorials will expand on these platforms.
Open a DOS box. Start > Run > 'cmd' (Type the words 'cmd' without the quotes) then press enter.
From the resulting DOS prompt type the words 'ipv6 install' (again
without the quotes)
After a few minutes you should get a 'success' message.
Well thats Windows done with ! Now for the comparatively tricky parts.
Step 3 - Get yourself a tunnel provider.
A tunnel provider is an ISP or hosting company that will provide the access point to the internet with the IPv6 protocol, and provide your computer with an IPv6 address. We are going to use the Freenet6 service provided by Freenet6/Hexago.
Goto http://www.hexago.com/index.php?pgID=step1 and fill out the form provided. It would be appreciated that the question 'How did you learn about Freenet6?' is answered in the 'other' box and mention this site and this tutorial but of course is up to you! Once the form is completed press the 'create account' button.
Then we move onto http://www.hexago.com/index.php?pgID=step2 .On this page you will find several versions of a 'client' program that we need in order to configure our end of the 'tunnel' to talk to the server end (Freenet6/Hexago). The one this tutorial is interested in is the latest Windows Binary version 2.1.1 - This is compatible with Windows XP Service Pack 2 but works with Service Pack 1 also. Download the executable file 'http://www.hexago.com/files/tspc-2_1_1-winxp.exe' and save it on your computer in a suitable location. This tutorial will assume the location of 'C:\Hexago\' - substitute any further references of this location to your own if it differs.
Ok, so finally we get to install & configure the downloaded client. Once this is done correctly, we should have an IPv6 connection to the outside world. Read the final step of Hexago '3 step installation' at http://www.hexago.com/index.php?pgID=step3 . You can then either download the accompanying 'Windows Installation Guide' and follow the instructions there or follow what I have written below.
STEP 4 - Configure the client and get connected
Locate the file 'tspc_2_1_1-winxp.exe and double click on it to start
the installation of the client.
Once complete , locate the file 'tspc.conf' located in the 'tsp-client'
folder created where you specified during the install process. So the
default would be 'C:\Program Files\tsp-client\' . Open up 'tspc.conf'
in WordPad or another text editor. Locate the entries as below and
change them accordingly :-
tsp_dir= <---ensure this is pointing to the tsp-client folder,
using the default would be ,
tsp_dir=C:\Program Files\tsp-client
user-id=anonymous # we dont want this
setting, change it to your username.
user-id=username # the username
creating when you signed up with Hexago/Freenet6
passwd= #
left blank if using anonymous user_id, we need to fill it in.
passwd= password # use the password emailed
to you during the sign up process.
server=anon.freenet6.net # we dont want this setting,
change it to broker. [see note1]
server=broker.freenet6.net
host_type=host # We are using
the router settings in this example, change to ,
host_type=router # ensures other computers on network
get IPv6 address too!
prefixlen=48 # ensure this setting is correct.
if_prefix=n # Where 'n' is the interface name of your connection that connects to the internet , usually on a default windows installation this would be 4. So we will try that.
if_prefix=4 # See the Freenet6 documentation if this setting does not work for you. Or you can ask in the itgazette.com forums where we can try and resolve the issue for you.
Any other settings in this file should be fine as they are and so need not be touched. Save and close the file 'tspc.conf'.
In the same folder as tspc.conf is the execautable file tspc.exe. This program is what we use to start the service (or daemon) that finally allows us an IPv6 tunnel. Double-Click on 'tspc.exe' and keep an eye on the resulting DOS box that appears. After a couple of minutes, amongst other messages, will finally be the message 'Your Ipv6 address is 2001:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx' . This is your IP address that advertises your presence to the outside IPv6 community. If this DOS box does not dissapear, do not close it down, minimise it to the task bar out of the way.
the final step
Lets revisit those sites we mentioned earlier and confirm our IPv6 connectivity.
Goto http://www.sixxs.net/main - At the footer of the page will be 'non ssl ipv6 connection' followed by your IPv6 address.
http://www.kame.net - At the top of the page will be a moving turtle image with the words 'dancing kame'. At the footer of the page will be the words 'You are using IPv6, from : [your IPv6 address here ].
The tests above are conclusive and if you do not see those results then there could be something wrong with the setup process somewhere. However, it has been known to take 24 hrs for DNS and Ipv6 AAAA records to update and propagate through, so give it a day or so after installation and try again.
summary
Congatulations, you should now be connected to the world of IPv6. If you are not, there are several possible reasons why, hardware,software,networking,configuration or a combination. Read the docs that came with your client download, or ask away in our forums for advice.
Want to know more?
Do you require more information regarding the IPv6 protocol or its usefulness?
A quick snippet into the future. One of the objectives of the new protocol combined with other services is speed. Current transfer rates are very slow and inhibit the growth of bandwidth hungry applications. Boffins of the nextGen protcol and related topics are always trying to break records in one way or another, and this can only help us at the end of it all.
" PASADENA, Calif.--Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), along with colleagues at AMD, Cisco, Microsoft Research, Newisys, and S2io have set a new Internet2 land-speed record. The team transferred 859 gigabytes of data in less than 17 minutes at a rate of 6.63 gigabits per second between the CERN facility in Geneva, Switzerland, and Caltech in Pasadena, California, a distance of more than 15,766 kilometers. The speed is equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD movie in just four seconds."
- This is the intro from http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12577.html .
So
as you can see, speed is just one of the things to come from all
this research.
Here are some links to excellent sites that describe in various levels of detail. Links that are only accessible via an IPv6 only connection have been highlighted as such. I wont describe them at this stage, suffice to say they all contain relevent information and also link out to other useful sites. Some of these sites may be used or mentioned in more detail in future tutorials.
www.6bone.net (very occasionally non accessible)
http://playground.sun.com/pub/ipng/html/ipng-implementations.html
http://www.cs-ipv6.lancs.ac.uk/ipv6/6Bone/Whois/bycountry.html
http://www.hs247.com/
http://6bone.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/ipv6/stats/stats.php3 (contains
links to IPv6 only websites in order of popularity over the previous 30 days)
