how to set ipv6 address manually

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IPv6: How to configure static and DHCP IP addressing and deal with DNS

Ipv6 offers several ways that aren’t possible in ipv4 to assign ip addresses, and dns set-up has differences as well..

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As IP technology has matured, the range of devices that the internet protocol supports goes well beyond computers to include cell phones, entertainment systems, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which created the need for more IP addresses and the development of IPv6 to provide them.

With more and more device types requiring network connectivity, the demand for addresses in an IPv4-based network is at a premium. It can provide somewhere south of 4,294,967,296 unique addresses. IPv6 , on the other hand, can yield roughly 3.4×10 38 , which should be ample for a very long time.

IPv6 also includes performance enhancements like refined multicasting, stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC), simplified headers to streamline router processing, and the option to allow larger packets. Security also gets a potential boost in IPv6 with IPSec, which was initially built for IPv6 and then retrofitted for IPv4.

Dealing with IPv6 includes familiarizing yourself with two important IP concepts: DHCP and DNS. Here are tips on both.

Key IPv6 addressing concepts

IPv6 addressing within a network has a few major differences from IPv4. With IPv4 certain address ranges are reserved for private networks (such as 10.0.0.0/8 or 192.168.0.0/16) and link-local addressing without dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) (169.254.0.0/16).

DHCP automatically assigns IP addresses and distributes other information to hosts on a network so they can communicate with other endpoints. At the same time, by assigning active IP addresses only to active devices, DHCP can reuse them to help conserve IPv4 addresses. IPv6 has similar concepts but refines each idea a little further.

Link-local addresses in IPv6 exist on each interface, regardless of whether the interface has an address assigned from DHCP or is configured using another method. Link-local IPv6 addresses have a prefix of fe80::/10 and a 64-bit suffix which can be computed and managed by the host itself without requiring additional networking components. IPv6 hosts can verify the uniqueness of their link-local addresses through a neighbor discovery process, which reaches out to the local network in order to verify that the address is not already in use.

Once a link-local address has been established, the IPv6 host attempts to determine if an IPv6-capable router is available through the use of a router solicitation message. If an IPv6 router is available it will respond with a router advertisement, which includes network configuration information such as a network prefix that is used for automatic address configuration using SLAAC or whether the host should obtain additional configuration information from a DHCPv6 server.

Configuring a Static IPv6 address in Windows

Typical to Windows, there are three ways to configure a static IPv6 address for a network adapter, all of which work in Windows 10 and in both Windows Server 2016 and 2019. The first way uses the classic Control Panel method as follows.

From the Control Panel, navigate to Network and Internet, Network and Sharing Center, and then choose the Change adapter settings link in the left panel. (You can shortcut all the clicking by searching for “View Network Connections” from the Start Menu or the Search bar).

Once you locate the network adapter you wish to configure, you can view the properties and locate the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) node and configure the properties for the IPv6 protocol. As with IPv4 you can set the adapter to obtain the IPv6 address automatically or configure your own IPv6 address, subnet, default gateway, and DNS server information. If you need to set multiple IPv6 addresses this can be accomplished by clicking the Advanced button.

The second method of setting a static IP address involves the more modern Settings application. In Settings go to Network & Internet and click the Properties button for the interface you wish to configure. Click the Edit button under IP settings, change the configuration type to Manual, enable IPv6, and populate your settings.

The third way is to use the Windows PowerShell command-line interface. In order to set a static IPv6 address using the New-NetIPAddress cmdlet you will need either the name or the numeric index of the adapter you wish to configure. Both of these values are available using the Get-NetAdapter cmdlet. From an administrative PowerShell prompt enter one of the following commands (on a single line) replacing the details as necessary for your environment:

Managing IPv6 Addressing for a Windows Network

Static IP addresses are generally OK to use when the device is hosting a critical network service that requires retaining a consistent network address, but for general use you’ll want to have a way to automate address configuration.

In an IPv4 network DHCP is the obvious answer for IP configuration and can also provide critical networking details such as the default gateway or DNS-server addresses through DHCP options. IPv6 offers three potential scenarios for managing addressing and network configuration.

SLAAC is a straightforward option assuming your router supports the appropriate router-advertisement messages. DHCP is certainly still in play to handle stateful addressing in the form of DHCPv6. You can also potentially have a hybrid scenario where your router handles addressing, and DHCPv6 simply provides the relevant network-configuration details.

In Windows Server 2016 and 2019, configuring DHCPv6 is extremely straightforward. If your router is configured to handle router advertisements and addressing through SLAAC you can simply manage the IPv6 server options to configure DNS servers or other options. If you prefer to roll with stateful addressing you can add one or more DHCPv6 scopes and configure a prefix, any exclusions, and lease durations. DHCPv6 scopes will maintain a list of leases and their expirations just as an IPv4 scope would, and they also provide an easy path for creating IPv6 reservations from existing leases.

Setting up DNS Name Resolution for IPv6

DNS is incredibly important in an IPv6 network, even moreso than in an IPv4 network because trying to configure connectivity and access resources using only IPv6 addresses is borderline insane. The biggest difference to note in regard to using DNS with IPv6 is that the IPv4 A records, which convert a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to an IPv4 address, are replaced by AAAA (quad-A) records. All other record types such as CNAME, MX, NS, SOA, and the various DNSSEC-related record types simply reference the FQDN of the AAAA record. Reverse lookup zones, which are used to find a hostname from an IP address, are different in IPv6 simply because they are built on the IP address structure, but the process of creating and using these zones are functionally identical.

The DNS server role in Windows Server supports both IPv4 and IPv6 through a similar set of tools and processes. As with A records, AAAA records can either be created manually for critical systems or the dynamic update process can be leveraged to manage DNS records for the entire enterprise.

AAAA records can be manually created using the DNS console through the same process as A records: Right click the required DNS zone, select the New Host (A or AAAA) option, and populate the Host name and IP address. Dynamic updates are enabled through the DNS console, but most of the work is done by DHCP; the update process is configured within the DHCP console and updates are performed by the DHCP client service on individual hosts. Dynamic updates can also be manually initiated from the command line using the ipconfig command with the /registerdns switch.

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Tim Ferrill is an IT professional and writer living in Southern California, with a focus on Windows, Windows Phone, and Windows Server.

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How can I figure out what IPv6 to use if I want to set a static IP for my computer?

I recently installed Windows Server 2012 on my desktop. I changed my connection settings to hardcode my internal IP address as 192.168.0.99 (IPv4). Windows Server 2012 warned me that I should also set my IPv6 address to a static address, but I'm not sure what the equivalent address is in IPv6 format. I've attempted to google this, however after visiting a few websites that "convert IPv4 to IPv6" they each give me different values. I'm not sure which one is the correct one.

How does one go about translating an IPv4 address to and IPv6 address appropriately? Specifically, I'd like to know what 192.168.0.99 is in IPv6 format. Thanks!

• windows-server-2012

• Tell your OS to use unique local addresses. These are the real replacement for private addresses. They cannot be fixed, because they have to be unique even when LAN are merged, but under normal condition, they should stay the same if there is no conflict. –  BatchyX Jan 5, 2013 at 13:28
• 2 the 192.168.*.* * (reusable/unrouted addresses) addresses are a work around for ipv4 to be able to continue to work while running out of address space. ipv6 is the solution. –  ctrl-alt-delor Jan 5, 2013 at 14:25

5 Answers 5

IPv6 has an equivalent of IPv4 "private range" addresses – called Unique Local Address ( RFC 4193 ) – it uses the fd00::/8 range. Pick a random /48 or /64 prefix within that range (see Wikipedia article for examples) and use it for your network.

A direct translation of your internal IPv4 addresses wouldn't make much sense, however. (If you did that, you'd also have the same limits as with IPv4, don't you think?)

However, with IPv6 it is not necessary to use local addresses. There are several ways you can get a global address range for yourself, even if your ISP doesn't offer native IPv6 yet:

You can sign up at Tunnelbroker or similar services; most of them will give you a globally-reachable /64 block – that's one subnet – and many will even provide /48 or /56 blocks upon request (64k and 256 subnets respectively). The same tunnel also lets you access the global IPv6 internet.

Or you can use the 6to4 address range based on your global IP address. For example, if your ISP assigns you 192.0.123.234 (C0 00 7B EA in hexadecimal), then you're allowed to use 2002:c000:7bea::/48 . Such addresses are reachable from the Internet as well.

• Good advise. If you want to run IPv6 on your LAN this is the way to do it. –  Sander Steffann Jan 6, 2013 at 14:23

To expand grawity's answer (the equivalent to private ranges are Unique Local Addresses, RFC 4913), here is how to pick the actual address to use.

With IPv4 private ranges like 192.168.X. , you randomly pick the value for X, but only get a few values to choose from (you picked 192.168.0. ), and then pick a random number for the machine (you picked 99). You can have multiple networks, e.g. 192.168.1. , but can't really combine two existing sets of networks together as they will likely clash. Using the private range 10.X.Y. gives you more options, but is still limited.

With IPv6, start with 'fd', followed by ten hex digits for your unique allocation (x), and four hex digits for your network (y). Each machine then have a number up to 16 hex digits (z).

This will give you a value like 'fdxx:xxxx:xxxx:yyyy:zzzz:zzzz:zzzz:zzzz', although if you put a lot of zeros in it will be a lot shorter to write out.

e.g. Pick '12:3456:789a' as your first random ten (x), and then use network '0001' inside that (y), then for your machine pick '0000:0000:0000:0063' (because hex 63 is the same as decimal 99).

This would give your machine the IPv6 address 'fd12:3456:789a:0001:0000:0000:0000:0063'. (For your specific network use different, random, values for the 12:3456:789a part.)

As you can collapse zeros in shorthand notation, this becomes just 'fd12:3456:789a:1::63'.

Your entire allocation would be 'fd12:3456:789a::/48', and subnet you are using would be 'fd12:3456:789a:1::/64'.

Note that the above examples happen to have the same number (99 decimal, 0x0063 hex) for the machine in both the IPv4 and IPv6 ranges, but they don't have to match (it just might be easier).

Firstly, there is no use in using a IPv6 address on a home network but still if you want to you then you should set it to automatic (just for IPv6), also your router must support DHCPv6 or Windows server will convert IPv4 to IPv6 automatically. As you want to try out into for static IPv6 Address then...

There are multiple types of IPv6 addresses that can be used, frankly speaking, even I don't know about them all. Below is a conversion table for the IPv4 specified. This is one of the best tool I can trust.

Conversion Table

As far as I can say, you should use 2002:C0A8:63:0:0:0:0:0 as your static IPv6 Address. (I was using another format earlier but someone commented that the format should never be used on wire. I have myself switched to this format now.)

There is a similar ServerFault Question , I think this would help you a bit.

• 2 Addresses link 0:0:0:0:0:ffff:c0a8:0063 are so that software can use the IPv6 APIs even when communicating over IPv4. They must never be used on the wire (and therefor also not as an interface address)! –  Sander Steffann Jan 6, 2013 at 14:22
• Okay, I have changed the IPv6 to 2002:C0A8:63:0:0:0:0:0 , its the 6-to-4 format –  Akshat Mittal Jan 7, 2013 at 10:47

Yes if you are using NAT you don't have to move to IPv6 but 1) NAT is problematic, especially for Voice over IP services 2) NAT does not allow for incoming connections without setuo for each incoming connection and even then you are limited 3) NAT adds complication and increases routing time/effort

To answer the actual question asked you can encode an IPv4 address into an IPv6 address in the form ::FFFF:

So the IPv4 address of 119.225.152.21 can be represented in IPv6 as 0:0:0:0:0:FFFF:119.225.152.21 which is abreviated to ::FFFF:192.225.152.21

each section of the IPv4 address will be sent in Hex of course so a network trace will show ::FFFF:C0E1:9815 as 192=C0 in hex, 225=E1,152=98 in hex etc

This will be converted to the IPv4 address when leaving an IPv6 network and entering an IPv4 network

See this page has some info on this

http://computernetworkingnotes.com/ipv6-features-concepts-and-configurations/special-ipv6-to-devices.html

There is no real need and probably no point to setting an IPv6 address on your internal network. Just stick with the IPv4 address and ignore the warning. The warning would be relevant for use on a public server so unless you have good reason for running IPv6 on your internal network I wouldn't worry about it.

On your other point, there is no IPv6 'translation' of an IPv4 address. They are separate systems.

In order to assign an IPv6 on your desktop, you would need to configure your internal router to manage an IPv6 network.

If you did want to run a home IPv6 network, then there are some helpful comments in the following questions:

• Is there any benefit to using IPv6 on my home network?
• How will home networks work in the IPv6 world?

• 9 I'd still like to, for correctness, even if it is optional. –  myermian Jan 5, 2013 at 13:19
• You would need to also configure your router for IPv6 if you wanted to run an IPv6 network internally. There are some useful comments here: superuser.com/questions/43853/… –  harunahi Jan 5, 2013 at 13:29
• 1 IPv6 is used in a lot more places than you think. Every interface has a link-local IPv6 address by default these days. Setting a global IPv6 address is usually only useful when your ISP provides it to you, but you can run a local IPv6 network using ULA (Unique Local Addresses). –  Sander Steffann Jan 6, 2013 at 14:20
• 7 This was a mediocre answer in 2013; today it's dangerously out of date. –  Michael Hampton Mar 11, 2017 at 23:21

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How to configure IPv6 in Windows

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(QuickPacket supports IPv6! Get a server from us with promo code PACKETS for 15% off your first invoice)

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP) intended to replace IPv4, which still carries more than 96% of the world’s Internet traffic as of May 2014. This article discusses how you can adapt and configure IPv6 in your Windows machines.

The 128 bits of an IPv6 address are represented in 8 groups of 16 bits each. Each group is written as 4 hexadecimal digits and the groups are separated by colons (:).

Example 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329

An IPv6 address may be abbreviated to shorter notations by using the following rules where possible:

• One or more leading zeroes from any group of hexadecimal digits are removed.
• Consecutive sections of zeroes are replaced with a double colon (::), which can only be used once in an address, as multiple uses would render the address indeterminate. RFC 5952 (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5952) recommends that a double colon must not be used to denote an omitted single section of zeroes.

See below for applications of these rules:

Initial address                                              2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329

After removing all leading zeroes                   2001:db8:0:0:0:ff00:42:8329

After omitting consecutive sections of zeroes    2001:db8::ff00:42:8329

The loopback address “0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001” may be abbreviated to “::1” by using both rules.

As an IPv6 address may have more than one representation, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has issued a proposed standard for representing them as text .

IPv6 Address Scopes

  The following points cover the scopes of an IPv6 address.

Global Unicast address.   IPv6’s Global Unicast address is equivalent to an IPv4 Public address. Its scope is the entire IPv6 Internet, so it is globally routable and reachable on the IPv6 Internet. To enable greater efficiency in the routing architecture, Unicast addresses are designed to be aggregated.

• Global Routing Prefix (part of the Public Routing Topology—along with 001 prefix)
• Subnet ID (Site Topology)
• Interface ID

Link-local address. An IPv6 Unicast Link-local address is similar to the IPv4 APIPA address used by machines running Microsoft® Windows®. It enables hosts on the same subnet to communicate with each other. It is always automatically configured even without all other unicast addresses.

• FE80::/64 prefix
• Single subnet, router-less configuration
• Used for some Neighbor-discovery process
• Compared to routable addresses, link-local addresses are ambiguous so Zone IDs are used to identify specific interfaces

Example fe80::2b0:d0ff:fee9:4143%3

• Windows Vista and above display the IPv6 Zone ID of local addresses in the ipconfig output

  Unique Local/Site-local address (ULA). Site-local addresses provide a private addressing alternative to global addresses for intranet traffic. It can be reused to address multiple sites within an organization as a site local address prefix can be duplicated.

• RFC 4193 define this unique local address
• Equivalent to IPv4 Private address
• FD00::/8 prefix
• Replacement for site-local addresses
• Global scope; no Zone ID required

IMPORTANT: The IPv6 addressing architecture requires all subnets using Globally Unique addresses and ULAs to always have 64-bit prefix lengths. Any subnet prefix length other than 64-bit breaks many features of IPv6.

  Prerequisites

  Decide whether you will use public IPv6 addresses that are globally aggregatable or if you will use a private address space. In using public IPv6 addresses, you would need to get an IPv6 address prefix from your ISP. If your ISP does not support IPv6 yet, you can get an address prefix from a tunnel broker .

If you want to use private IPv6 addresses, use locally unique addresses. Do note however that most operating systems and applications still support site-local addresses, which are officially deprecated. This means that you need to get a unique prefix. There are already a growing number of sites that generate locally unique address prefixes like SixXS or Unique Local IPv6 Generator . You can use private addresses in the interim to immediately provide IPv6 connectivity in your intranet then move on to public IPv6 addresses later .

Do not forget to check if your Microsoft product supports IPv6. Go here to read Microsoft’s official list .

  Auto-configuration in Windows

  IPv6 can configure itself even without the use of DHCP. It is installed and enabled by default in the following Microsoft products:

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Vista

IPv6 for Windows is also designed to auto-configure itself. It automatically sets up link-local addresses for communication between nodes on a link. Moreover, if there is an Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP) router or an IPv6 router on the host’s subnet, the host uses received router advertisements to automatically configure additional addresses, a default router, and other setup parameters.

 Note that IPv6 is not installed in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems.

Configuration in IPv6-ready Network Systems

  For Windows 8 and Server 2012, if you already have an unconfigured but IPv6-ready network infrastructure, you can still use IPv6 and configure IPv6 addresses in these situations:

• For home users with public IP addresses, Windows will try to establish a connection using the IPv6 transition technology Teredo . Teredo will work only if the Windows machine is not joined to a domain and has UDP access to the Internet, with no firewall-blocking packets.
• If Teredo fails for home users with public IP addresses, Windows will use another IPv6 transition technology named 6to4 , which requires only a publicly routable IP address.
• Windows can resolve the name of your network using ISATAP through DNS or name broadcasts. In this situation, Windows will assume that the host is an ISATAP server capable of accepting IPv6 packets encapsulated in IPv4 packets. It will then deliver these packets to IPv6 hosts, encapsulate the replies, and send those replies back. ISATAP works in domain-joined, non-domain-joined, and non-routable IP address environments.

Manual Configuration

  You can manually configure IPv6 addresses and other parameters in Windows by using the following tools:

• Properties of TCP/IPv6 component

You can configure basic IPv6 settings through the properties of the TCP/IPv6 component.

The following instructions are to statically address Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 servers:

• Log on to the server with administrator rights.
• Go to Start > Network > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Setting.
• Right-click on the Local Area Connection of the network adapter and choose “I want to set IPv6.” Click on Properties.
• Pick TCP/IPv6 and click on Properties.
• Click “Use the following IPv6 address” and in the IPv6 address field, type the IP address you want to use.

fda8:06c3:ce53:a890:0000:0000:0000:0001

6. Press the Tab key and the subnet prefix length will automatically populate with 64. 7. Press the Tab key again and in the Default Gateway field, type the IP address you want to use for your gateway.

               Example

fda8:06c3:ce53:a890:0000:0000:0000:0005

8. In the Preferred DNS Server field, type the IP address of your DNS server

if your IP address sits on your DNS server: fda8:06c3:ce53:a890:0000:0000:0000:0001

9. Click OK. Close to save and exit.

• Windows PowerShell

In Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, you can configure IPv6 addresses, default gateways, and DNS servers at the Windows PowerShell command prompt. You can use the following PowerShell cmdlets:

• Set-NetIPAddress
• Set-NetIPInterface
• Set-NetIPv6Protocol
• Set-NetNeighbor
• Set-NetRouteWindows

Configuring Addresses

To configure IPv6 addresses, you can use the New-NetIPAddress cmdlet.        Example

To configure the IPv6 Unicast address 2001:db8:290c:1291::1 on the interface named “Wired Ethernet Connection,” use the following command:

New-NetIPAddress –InterfaceAlias "Wired Ethernet Connection" –IPAddress 2001:db8:290c:1291::1

Adding Default Gateways

To configure a default gateway, you can use the New-NetRoute Windows PowerShell cmdlet.

To add a default route that uses the interface named “Wired Ethernet Connection” with a next-hop address of fe80::2aa:ff:fe9a:21b8, use the following command:

New-NetRoute –DestinationPrefix ::/0 –InterfaceAlias "Wired Ethernet Connection" –NextHop fe80::2aa:ff:fe9a:21b8

Adding DNS Servers

To configure the IPv6 addresses of DNS servers, you can use the Set-DnsClientServerAddress Windows PowerShell cmdlet.

Example To add a DNS server with the IPv6 address 2001:db8:99:4acd::8 that uses the interface named “Wired Ethernet Connection,” use the following command:

Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Wired Ethernet Connection" -ServerAddresses 2001:db8:99:4acd::8

 Use these Windows PowerShell commands to display information about the IPv6 configuration of a computer:

• Get-NetIPInterface -AddressFamily IPv6
• Get-NetIPAddress -AddressFamily IPv6
• Get-NetRoute -AddressFamily IPv6
• Get-NetNeighbor -AddressFamily IPv6
• Netsh.exe tool

You can configure IPv6 settings from the interface of IPv6 context of the Netsh.exe tool. You can also configure IPv6 addresses, default gateways, and DNS servers at the command line by using commands in the "netsh interface ipv6" context.

Configuring IPv6 addresses Use the "netsh interface ipv6 add address" command with the following syntax:

netsh interface ipv6 add address [interface=]InterfaceNameorIndex[address=]IPv6Address[/PrefixLength] [[type=]unicast|anycast] [[validlifetime=]Time|infinite] [[preferredlifetime=]Time|infinite] [[store=]active|persistent]

Example To configure with infinite valid and preferred lifetimes the IPv6 unicast address 2001:db8:290c:1291::1 on the interface named “Local Area Connection” and make the address persistent, use the following command:

netsh interface ipv6 add address "Local Area Connection" 2001:db8:290c:1291::1

Use the "netsh interface ipv6 add route" command and add a default route (::/0) with the following syntax:

netsh interface ipv6 add route [prefix=]::/0 [interface=]InterfaceNameorIndex [[nexthop=]IPv6Address] [[siteprefixlength=]Length] [[metric=]MetricValue] [[publish=]no|yes|immortal] [[validlifetime=]Time|infinite] [[preferredlifetime=]Time|infinite] [[store=]active|persistent]

To add a default route that uses the interface named “Local Area Connection” with a next-hop address of fe80::2aa:ff:fe9a:21b8, use the following command:

netsh interface ipv6 add route ::/0 "Local Area Connection" fe80::2aa:ff:fe9a:21b8

To configure the IPv6 addresses of DNS servers, use the "netsh interface ipv6 add dnsserver" command with the following syntax:

netsh interface ipv6 add dnsserver [name=]InterfaceName[[address=]IPv6Address] [[index=]PreferenceValue]

By default, the DNS server is added to the end of the list of DNS servers. If an index is specified, the DNS server is placed in that position in the list and the other DNS servers are moved down the list.

Example To add a DNS server with the IPv6 address 2001:db8:99:4acd::8 that uses the interface named “Local Area Connection,” use the following command:

netsh interface ipv6 add dnsserver "Local Area Connection" 2001:db8:99:4acd::8

You can obtain IPv6 configuration information with the following commands in the "netsh interface ipv6" context of the Netsh tool:

• netsh interface ipv6 show address
• netsh interface ipv6 show interface
• netsh interface ipv6 show route
• netsh interface ipv6 show neighbors

Note that you can also view IPv6 addresses and routes using the Ipconfig.exe and Route.exe tools (i.e. ipconfig and route print -6 commands).

Disabling IPv6

Though you cannot remove IPv6 support from Windows Vista to Server 2012 R2, you can disable it. You can also just unbind IPv6 from the physical adapters. This will mean however, that IPv6 will still be running and can still be used to connect to IPv6 sites over IPv4. Read the Microsoft Support article " How to disable IP version 6 or its specific components in Windows " for more details.

Connectivity Testing and Troubleshooting

Windows includes the following IPv6-enabled command-line tools that you can use for network troubleshooting:

To ping an IPv6 address, use the syntax: ping IPv6Address [%ZoneID] . Note that the zone ID is not needed when the destination is a global address.

To send ICMPv6 Echo Request messages to the link-local address fe80::260:97ff:fe02:6ea5 using zone ID 4 (the interface index of an installed Ethernet adapter), use the following command:

ping fe80::260:97ff:fe02:6ea5%4

This ping command includes the -6 flag, which forces Ping to use IPv6. If all is well, you should see a reply, which should be quite fast especially if you have a native IPv6 connection to the Internet. If your echo request does not get a reply, there might be a firewall or networking device blocking ICMPv6 between your Windows system and the target.

Once you know you have connectivity to the Internet using IPv6, be sure to test some IPv6-only websites to verify that everything is working properly.

A DNS lookup for the host ipv6.google.com

> ipv6.google.com

Server:  [YOUR-DNS_SERVER-IP]

Address:  <YOUR-DNS_SERVER-IP>

Non-authoritative answer:

Name:    ipv6.l.google.com

Address:  2607:f8b0:4002:c06::71

Aliases:  ipv6.google.com

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IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release 3S

Bias-free language.

The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.

IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

• IPv6 Anycast Address
• IPv6 Switching: Cisco Express Forwarding and Distributed Cisco Express Forwarding Support
• Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding for IPv6
• IPv6 Services: AAAA DNS Lookups over an IPv4 Transport
• IPv6 MTU Path Discovery
• ICMP for IPv6
• IPv6 ICMP Rate Limiting
• ICMP for IPv6 Redirect
• IPv6 Neighbor Discovery
• IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Cache
• IPv6 Default Router Preference
• IPv6 Stateless Autoconfiguration

Chapter: IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

Finding feature information, restrictions for implementing ipv6 addressing and basic connectivity, ipv6 for cisco software, large ipv6 address space for unique addresses, ipv6 address formats, ipv6 address output display, simplified ipv6 packet header, dns for ipv6, cisco discovery protocol ipv6 address support, ipv6 prefix aggregation, ipv6 site multihoming, ipv6 data links, dual ipv4 and ipv6 protocol stacks, configuring ipv6 addressing and enabling ipv6 routing, hostname-to-address mappings, displaying ipv6 redirect messages, example: ipv6 addressing and ipv6 routing configuration, example: dual-protocol stacks configuration, example: hostname-to-address mappings configuration, additional references, feature information for ipv6 addressing and basic connectivity.

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) expands the number of network address bits from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits, which provides more than enough globally unique IP addresses for every networked device on the planet. The unlimited address space provided by IPv6 allows Cisco to deliver more and newer applications and services with reliability, improved user experience, and increased security.

Implementing basic IPv6 connectivity in the Cisco software consists of assigning IPv6 addresses to individual device interfaces. IPv6 traffic forwarding can be enabled globally, and Cisco Express Forwarding switching for IPv6 can also be enabled. The user can enhance basic connectivity functionality by configuring support for AAAA record types in the Domain Name System (DNS) name-to-address and address-to-name lookup processes, and by managing IPv6 neighbor discovery.

Information About IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

How to configure ipv6 addressing and basic connectivity, configuration examples for ipv6 addressing and basic connectivity.

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the Feature Information Table at the end of this document.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/​go/​cfn . An account on Cisco.com is not required.

• IPv6 packets are transparent to Layer 2 LAN switches because the switches do not examine Layer 3 packet information before forwarding IPv6 frames. Therefore, IPv6 hosts can be directly attached to Layer 2 LAN switches.
• Multiple IPv6 global addresses within the same prefix can be configured on an interface; however, multiple IPv6 link-local addresses on an interface are not supported.

IPv6, formerly named IPng (next generation), is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP). IP is a packet-based protocol used to exchange data, voice, and video traffic over digital networks. IPv6 was proposed when it became clear that the 32-bit addressing scheme of IP version 4 (IPv4) was inadequate to meet the demands of Internet growth. After extensive discussion it was decided to base IPng on IP but add a much larger address space and improvements such as a simplified main header and extension headers. IPv6 is described initially in RFC 2460, Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification , issued by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Further RFCs describe the architecture and services supported by IPv6.

The architecture of IPv6 has been designed to allow existing IPv4 users to transition easily to IPv6 while providing services such as end-to-end security, quality of service (QoS), and globally unique addresses. The larger IPv6 address space allows networks to scale and provide global reachability. The simplified IPv6 packet header format handles packets more efficiently. IPv6 prefix aggregation, simplified network renumbering, and IPv6 site multihoming capabilities provide an IPv6 addressing hierarchy that allows for more efficient routing. IPv6 supports widely deployed routing protocols such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Integrated Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) for IPv6, and multiprotocol Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Other available features include stateless autoconfiguration and an increased number of multicast addresses.

The primary motivation for IPv6 is the need to meet the demand for globally unique IP addresses. IPv6 quadruples the number of network address bits from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits, which provides more than enough globally unique IP addresses for every networked device on the planet. By being globally unique, IPv6 addresses inherently enable global reachability and end-to-end security for networked devices, functionality that is crucial to the applications and services that are driving the demand for the addresses. Additionally, the flexibility of the IPv6 address space reduces the need for private addresses; therefore, IPv6 enables new application protocols that do not require special processing by border devices at the edge of networks.

IPv6 addresses are represented as a series of 16-bit hexadecimal fields separated by colons (:) in the format: x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x. Following are two examples of IPv6 addresses:

2001:DB8:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210

2001:DB8:0:0:8:800:200C:417A

IPv6 addresses commonly contain successive hexadecimal fields of zeros. Two colons (::) may be used to compress successive hexadecimal fields of zeros at the beginning, middle, or end of an IPv6 address (the colons represent successive hexadecimal fields of zeros). The table below lists compressed IPv6 address formats.

A double colon may be used as part of the ipv6-address argument when consecutive 16-bit values are denoted as zero. You can configure multiple IPv6 addresses per interfaces, but only one link-local address.

The loopback address listed in the table above may be used by a node to send an IPv6 packet to itself. The loopback address in IPv6 functions the same as the loopback address in IPv4 (127.0.0.1).

The unspecified address listed in the table above indicates the absence of an IPv6 address. For example, a newly initialized node on an IPv6 network may use the unspecified address as the source address in its packets until it receives its IPv6 address.

An IPv6 address prefix, in the format ipv6-prefix / prefix-length , can be used to represent bit-wise contiguous blocks of the entire address space. The ipv6-prefix must be in the form documented in RFC 2373 where the address is specified in hexadecimal using 16-bit values between colons. The prefix length is a decimal value that indicates how many of the high-order contiguous bits of the address comprise the prefix (the network portion of the address). For example, 2001:DB8:8086:6502::/32 is a valid IPv6 prefix.

When IPv6 or IPv4 command output displays an IPv6 address, a long IPv6 address can overflow into neighboring fields, causing the output to be difficult to read. The output fields were designed to work with the longest possible IPv4 address, which has 15 characters; IPv6 addresses can be up to 39 characters long. The following scheme has been adopted in IPv4 and IPv6 commands to allow the appropriate length of IPv6 address to be displayed and move the following fields to the next line, if necessary. The fields that are moved are kept in alignment with the header row.

The following example displays eight connections. The first six connections feature IPv6 addresses; the last two connections feature IPv4 addresses.

Connection 1 contains an IPv6 address that uses the maximum address length in the address field. Connection 2 shows the IPv6 address overflowing the address field and the following fields moved to the next line, but in alignment with the appropriate headers. Connection 3 contains an IPv6 address that fills the maximum length of the hostname and address fields without wrapping any lines. Connection 4 shows the effect of both the hostname and address fields containing a long IPv6 address. The output is shown over three lines keeping the correct heading alignment. Connection 5 displays a similar effect as connection 4 with a very long IPv6 address in the hostname and address fields. Note that the connection name field is actually truncated. Connection 6 displays a very short IPv6 address that does not require any change in the display. Connections 7 and 8 display short and long IPv4 addresses.

The basic IPv4 packet header has 12 fields with a total size of 20 octets (160 bits) (see the figure below). The 12 fields may be followed by an Options field, which is followed by a data portion that is usually the transport-layer packet. The variable length of the Options field adds to the total size of the IPv4 packet header. The shaded fields of the IPv4 packet header shown in the figure below are not included in the IPv6 packet header.

The basic IPv6 packet header has 8 fields with a total size of 40 octets (320 bits) (see the figure below). Fields were removed from the IPv6 header because, in IPv6, fragmentation is not handled by devices and checksums at the network layer are not used. Instead, fragmentation in IPv6 is handled by the source of a packet and checksums at the data link layer and transport layer are used. (In IPv4, the UDP transport layer uses an optional checksum. In IPv6, use of the UDP checksum is required to check the integrity of the inner packet.) Additionally, the basic IPv6 packet header and Options field are aligned to 64 bits, which can facilitate the processing of IPv6 packets.

The table below lists the fields in the basic IPv6 packet header.

Following the eight fields of the basic IPv6 packet header are optional extension headers and the data portion of the packet. If present, each extension header is aligned to 64 bits. There is no fixed number of extension headers in an IPv6 packet. The extension headers form a chain of headers. Each extension header is identified by the Next Header field of the previous header. Typically, the final extension header has a Next Header field of a transport-layer protocol, such as TCP or UDP. The figure below shows the IPv6 extension header format.

The table below lists the extension header types and their Next Header field values.

IPv6 supports DNS record types that are supported in the DNS name-to-address and address-to-name lookup processes. The DNS record types support IPv6 addresses. IPv6 also supports the reverse mapping of IPv6 addresses to DNS names.

The table below lists the IPv6 DNS record types.

2.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.1.0.0.0.8.1.c.0.y.y.y.y.e.f.f.3.ip6.int PTR www.abc.test

The Cisco Discovery Protocol IPv6 address support for neighbor information feature adds the ability to transfer IPv6 addressing information between two Cisco devices. Cisco Discovery Protocol support for IPv6 addresses provides IPv6 information to network management products and troubleshooting tools.

The aggregatable nature of the IPv6 address space enables an IPv6 addressing hierarchy. For example, an enterprise can subdivide a single IPv6 prefix from a service provider into multiple, longer prefixes for use within its internal network. Conversely, a service provider can aggregate all of the prefixes of its customers into a single, shorter prefix that the service provider can then advertise over the IPv6 internet (see the figure below).

Multiple IPv6 prefixes can be assigned to networks and hosts. Having multiple prefixes assigned to a network allows that network to connect easily to multiple ISPs without breaking the global routing table (see the figure below).

In IPv6 networks, a data link is a network sharing a particular link-local prefix. Data links are networks arbitrarily segmented by a network administrator in order to provide a multilevel, hierarchical routing structure while shielding the subnetwork from the addressing complexity of attached networks. The function of a subnetwork in IPv6 is similar to a subnetwork in IPv4. A subnetwork prefix is associated with one data link; multiple subnetwork prefixes may be assigned to the same data link.

The following data links are supported for IPv6: FDDI, Frame Relay PVC, Cisco High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC), PPP over Packet over SONET, ISDN, and serial interfaces.

The dual IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stack technique can be used to transition to IPv6. It enables gradual, one-by-one upgrades to applications running on nodes. Applications running on nodes are upgraded to make use of the IPv6 protocol stack. Applications that are not upgraded (for example, they support only the IPv4 protocol stack) can coexist with upgraded applications on a node. New and upgraded applications make use of both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks (see the figure below).

One application program interface (API) supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and DNS requests. An application can be upgraded to the new API and still use only the IPv4 protocol stack. The Cisco software supports the dual IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stack technique. When an interface is configured with both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, the interface will forward both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.

In the figure below, an application that supports dual IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks requests all available addresses for the destination hostname www.example.com from a DNS server. The DNS server replies with all available addresses (both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses) for www.example.com. The application chooses an address (in most cases, IPv6 addresses are the default choice), and connects the source node to the destination using the IPv6 protocol stack.

Mapping Hostnames to IPv6 Addresses

Perform this task to assign IPv6 addresses to individual device interfaces and enable IPv6 traffic forwarding globally on the device. By default, IPv6 addresses are not configured and IPv6 routing is disabled.

1.     enable

2.     configure terminal

3.     interface type number

4.     Do one of the following:

• ipv6 address ipv6-prefix / prefix-length eui-64
• ipv6 address ipv6-address / prefix-length link-local
• ipv6 enable

5.     exit

6.     ipv6 unicast-routing

A name server is used to track information associated with domain names. A name server can maintain a database of hostname-to-address mappings. Each name can map to one or more IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, or both address types. In order to use this service to map domain names to IPv6 addresses, you must specify a name server and enable the DNS, which is the global naming scheme of the Internet that uniquely identifies network devices.

Cisco software maintains a cache of hostname-to-address mappings for use by the connect , telnet , and ping commands, related Telnet support operations, and many other commands that generate command output. This cache speeds the conversion of names to addresses.

Similar to IPv4, IPv6 uses a naming scheme that allows a network device to be identified by its location within a hierarchical name space that provides for domains. Domain names are joined with periods (.) as the delimiting characters. For example, Cisco is a commercial organization that is identified by a com domain name, so its domain name is cisco.com . A specific device in this domain, the FTP server, for example, is identified as ftp.cisco.com .

3.     ipv6 host name [ port ] ipv6-address1 [ ipv6-address2...ipv6-address4 ]

• ip domain name [ vrf vrf-name ] name
• ip domain lis t [ vrf vrf-name ] name

5.     ip name-server [ vrf vrf-name ] server-address1 [ server-address2...server-address6 ]

6.     ip domain-lookup

Specifies one or more hosts that supply name information.

• Specifies one or more hosts (up to six) that can function as a name server to supply name information for DNS.

Enables DNS-based address translation.

• DNS is enabled by default.

2.     show ipv6 interface [ brief ] [ type number ] [ prefix ]

3.     show ipv6 neighbors [ interface-type interface-number | ipv6-address | ipv6-hostname ] statistics

4.     show ipv6 route [ ipv6-address | ipv6-prefix / prefix-length | protocol | interface-type interface-number ]

5.     show ipv6 traffic

6.     show hosts [ vrf vrf-name | all | hostname | summary ]

7.     enable

8.     show running-config

In the following example, IPv6 is enabled on the device with both a link-local address and a global address based on the IPv6 prefix 2001:DB8:c18:1::/64. The EUI-64 interface ID is used in the low-order 64 bits of both addresses. Output from the show ipv6 interface command is included to show how the interface ID (260:3EFF:FE47:1530) is appended to the link-local prefix FE80::/64 of Gigabit Ethernet interface 0/0/0.

The following example enables the forwarding of IPv6 unicast datagrams globally on the device and configures Gigabit Ethernet interface 0/0/0 with both an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address:

The following example defines two static hostname-to-address mappings in the hostname cache, establishes a domain list with several alternate domain names to complete unqualified hostnames, specifies host 2001:DB8::250:8bff:fee8:f800 and host 2001:DB8:0:f004::1 as the name servers, and reenables the DNS service:

Related Documents

Standards and rfcs, technical assistance.

The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

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