Learn how to use IPv6 to surf the Internet in five minutes

1. Introduction to IPv6

As the technical foundation of the next generation of the Internet, IPv6 has a larger address space, faster routing mechanisms, better business performance, and higher security advantages compared to IPv4. In 2012, the top IPv4 addresses were exhausted; in November 2019, IPv4 addresses were again in urgent need, and the European Network Information Center made the last /22 IPv4 allocation from the available pool, indicating that the regional IPv4 address inventory has also been exhausted, and all approximately 4.3 billion IP addresses in the world have been allocated, which means that there are no more IPv4s available for allocation to Internet service providers and other large network infrastructure providers.

At this time, many friends will ask, when the next generation of Internet comes, how can we use IPv6 to make it work? Don't worry, next, let's see what preparations we should make as netizens if we want to use IPv6 to access the Internet.

2. How to use IPv6 to access the Internet

1. The first step (operator supports IPv6)

First, confirm whether the selected operator supports IPv6. As of May 2019, the backbone network equipment of China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom all support IPv6, and the IPv6 transformation of the metropolitan area network in 30 provinces across the country has been completed.

Although the backbone network has fully supported IPv6, at the access network level, the support for IPv6 by various operators in various communities and streets is not uniform. If you choose an operator, you should ask clearly whether the community or street supports IPv6.

The currently known IPv6 address prefixes of the three major operators are:

2. Step 2 (Home network equipment supports IPv6)

An important advantage of IPv6 is that it has a huge address space, which is also the basis for realizing the interconnection of all things. With the development of the Internet of Things, more and more manufacturers have begun to build the Internet of Things ecosystem for families, and smart home networks have gradually penetrated into people's daily lives. As the control center of the home network, the home gateway is the key to the smart home. It is obviously necessary for home gateway products such as home access routers, wireless routers, GPON&EPON (optical modem) terminals, etc. to support IPv6. Currently, the full range of Huawei and Netgear as well as some routers of brands such as D-Link and Xiaomi on the market support IPv6.

Here are some ways to check if a product supports IPv6. The IPv6 Ready certification product, initiated by the IPv6 Forum (Global IPv6 Forum), requires that the product must pass 100% of all test cases for IPv6 consistency and interoperability, and have an internationally recognized authoritative IPv6 support certificate.

3. Step 3 (whether the terminal device, operating system, and program support IPv6)

The terminal devices selected at home also need to fully comply with the IPv6 standard protocol to ensure that there are no obstacles to IPv6 interconnection and interoperability. Taking smart home solutions as an example, a series of terminal devices such as PCs, video surveillance, smart speakers, smart door locks, lighting systems, air conditioning systems, smart robots, and smart phones all require end-to-end IPv6 support to achieve a smart and convenient lifestyle. The selection of terminal devices is much more complicated than that of home gateway products. Faced with a wide variety of terminal devices with endless performance, whether the operating system and software applications can support IPv6 must be considered.

4. Step 4 (Configure IPv6 DNS service)

When all the above operators and product options support IPv6, some netizens find that they still cannot use IPv6 to access the Internet at home, or the Internet experience is not good. At this time, the problem may be with the default DNS service. DNS is one of the basic services for devices to access the Internet. If there is a problem with DNS, the website cannot be opened. The solution is very simple. Manually change the default DNS server address and configure a high-performance public DNS server. Relying on the high-performance IPv6 DNS system independently developed, the National Engineering Center for Next Generation Internet has launched the first IPv6 public DNS, providing free IPv6 public DNS services to the public (240C::6666)

Conclusion

With the rapid development of network technology, it has become a trend for us to use IPv6 to access the Internet in the future. As an Internet user, if you want to use IPv6 to surf the Internet and connect more smart homes, then the operator, home gateway, terminal device selection, and DNS service configuration are all indispensable.