Short for Internet Protocol version 6, IPv6 is a recent version of the IP or Internet Protocol that the Internet uses in order to make it possible to connect to different sites, servers and machines. It provides identification labels and communication tools in order to allow the routing of traffic across the Internet.
Technipages Explains IPv6
Currently, IPv6 is the most recent version of the IP. Developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force, it serves a very specific purpose.
At the moment, the protocol used for identifying locations, servers and machines is IPv4. It provides a limited number of IP addresses, and as it is, we are running out – the available addresses have been in use since the 1990s. The IPv6 uses a more complicated system to assign numbers and thus provides significantly more of them. Specifically, while IPv4 provides roughly 4.3 billion addresses, IPv6 has several orders of magnitude more.
Due to the rapid growth of the Internet and the servers and machines on it, it’s necessary to switch to something better than IPv4. The two systems are not directly compatible – it’s not possible to use both of them at once.
That means that it’ll be necessary to switch over completely eventually, in order to continually support the growing expansion of the Internet.
Common Uses of IPv6
- IPv6 is a version of the Internet Protocol.
- Compared to the IPv4, IPv6 offers significantly more addresses.
- Internet Protocol version 6 is the most recent standard.
Common Misuses of IPv6
- IPv6 provides a faster way to connect to the Internet in the future.
