Learning IPv6?

fsckme asks: "With IPv6 starting to filter its was into the internet I thought that it was about time to learn it. However digging around I've found sites like www.ipv6.org and the IPv6 FAQ but I haven't found a tutorial teaching the basics. Can anyone recommend a nice web based tutorial of even a decent book?"

Comments

I'd like a tutorial on

[redcliffe]

turning your windows, mac and linux combination network from IPv4 to v6. I've seen a lot of articles that cover part of it, but I'd like a step by step on the whole process. Thanks,

David

Re:I'd like a tutorial on

[56ker]

I'd like to know when it's going to happen (or whether it has happened already). They've been talking about the change for years!

Re:I'd like a tutorial on

[noahm]

Only IPv6? Most of these machines won't be able to do it. At this point, it's far more common to run both IPv6 and IPv4 on a host simultaneously. For whatever reason it seems that OSs hosts are unable to use IPv6 DNS hosts. I've gotten Linux to work IPv6-only (kernel 2.4.x, Debian unstable). I have heard from one of the FreeBSD network coders that FreeBSD can't do it, though that might not be current information. I don't think there's any way to get Windows to use IPv6 hosts for DNS servers.

WinXP can do dual-stack (IPv6 and IPv4) just fine. Just run 'ipv6 install' from a command prompt and you'll have a working autoconfiguring IPv6 host. Their docs are quite helpful.

I don't know anything about IPv6 on Macs, though I'd love to try it. Apparently OS X can do it, though all the pages I've found to describe it are in Japanese.

noah

Re:I'd like a tutorial on

[redcliffe]

Well that's what I meant. dual-stack. Apparently the Kernel 2.4 IPv6 isn't very good, so you use the usagi one. Usagi Ipv6 has been merged in 2.5.x AFAIK. Thanks,

David

Re:I'd like a tutorial on

[noahm]

Apparently the Kernel 2.4 IPv6 isn't very good, so you use the usagi one.

I've been using the standard Linux 2.4 IPv6 with no problems at all for over a year (since about the time 2.4.0 came out). I've used USAGI a bit, but it actually introduced a bit of instability, causing my machine to lock up completely on a couple of occasions. I know there are some things that USAGI supposedly gets right that the kernel gets wrong, but I haven't run in to any of them. One thing that is supposed to make a difference, though, whether you're using USAGI or not, is building IPv6 statically into your kernel image. I've never managed to get a host using IPv6 as a module to autoconfigure at all.

Note also that USAGI includes important modifications to libc. Having good support in libc is as important as having kernel support.

Maybe I should check out USAGI again...

noah

Re:I'd like a tutorial on

[Lazaru5]

FreeBSD has supported IPv6 for years and has been able to do IPv6 _only_, (including IPv6 network installs) for at least a year.

Quake!

[Disevidence]

For the hoplessly bleeding edge, their is a Q uake Version modified to use Ipv6. They even have a server up!

I have the same problem

[Economist]

When i look at the output of ifconfig, i notice my network cards have IPv6 addresses like fe80::248:54ff:fe6e:f6c2/10. Now, that makes me wonder, where did it get that address from (i've never said to use that address) and what's with the /10 in the back? I thought i read that /x means the same on IPv6 than it did on IPv4. I'm confused....

So if anybody finds me a site wich explains such things in an easy to understand manner, i would be delighted.

Re:I have the same problem

[tenman]

/10 means that you have a 10(bit?) subnet. That tells your computer's closest router, what requests from your computer that it shouldn't route.

Re:I have the same problem

[hazen_vs]

Hey,

IPv6 has a very diffrent way of nameing things. First off you have the folling addresses on each card;

v6 (128bit in hex)
Multicast (128bit in hex w/reserved header)
Group Multicast (128bit in hes w/reserved header)
Network Multicast (128bit in hes w/reserved header)
Network (same as above)
Broadcast (same as above)
and last but not least all those v4 addresses too. so yes the /10 is a leagacy compliance feature.

Re:I have the same problem

[d-rock]

fe80 is a link-local address (i.e. your ethernet card). Your Ethernet card's MAC address is stored in the lower 64 bits of the address (54:ff:fe:6e:f6:c2). There's a lot of useful info at http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/ipv6/.

Derek

Re:Comer

[hazen_vs]

Linux Magazene's Last months Issue has a very comphrensive overview. As well as the following sites.

Solaris 8 Faq
IPng Overview
Juniper's Perspective

For those in the "Know" BSD has had V6 compliance for quite some time now. OpenBSD, NetBSD and FreeBSD all support it but OpenBSD will install v6 by default due to it's added security mesaures.

By the way, "IT's all infrastructre?!" A statement that those of us whom actually provide said "Infrastructure" make it seem simple much like magic, it's seamleass and it works well than it's abvoiusly a testament to those that put "it" together.

IPv6 will often be refferd to as IPng in earlier documents.

For those of you whom think "Well I should just plug in to v6 and I'm there." I have only one though; Ignorance is bliss and there are a lot of blissful people out there.

solaris article in Sysadmin

[obtuse]

There was an article in Sysadmin magazine recently.

Getting on the 6bone Quickly With Solaris8
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1441/sa m0111d/

Implementing IPV6

[bihoy]

Implementing IPV6: Supporting the Next Generation Internet Protocols

A former colleage of mine had this book and liked it. I have not read it personally but I just checked it out on Amazon. It looks like it has a lot of useful information.

Here's a bit from their description:

"IPv6 is a critical new technology, essential for the geometrically increasing traffic on the net. The second edition of Implementing IPv6 shows networking professionals the how and why of making the transition -- and points out both IPv6's capabilities, and the potential issues it raises for network managers."

Inside you'll find everything you need to:

Learn the IPv6 addressing architecture.

Keep up to date with the latest Request For Comments (RFC) documents.

Understand such hot issues as upper layer protocols, APIs, and security.

Manage IPv6 Internetworks.

Master transition mechanisms and routing.

Troubleshoot autoconfiguration and local network issues.

Understand all the capabilities and shortcomings of the next generation...

Try the late Richard Stevens' book

[Xpilot]

You can try reading UNIX network programming by the late Rick Stevens (2nd edition). It covers IPv6 network programming... 1st and 2nd volume.

Freenet6

[larse]

Not so much a tutorial, but Freenet6 makes it *very* easy to connect to the 6bone, if your upstream ISP doesn't support IPv6 yet:

http://www.freenet6.net/

And they are part of the FreeBSD ports tree already.

Cisco Technical Documents

[keep_it_simple_stupi]

There are technical documents here from Cisco. That doesn't make them easy to read, but it should be at least correct. Happy reading!

Re:Go straight to the latest LinuxJournal.

[mikehoskins]

Oops, make that #96 -- April 2002, not the May one. Sorry. There's good stuff in this issue.

Better yet, subscribe.

what about IPv6 do you want to learn?

[noahm]

You didn't make it clear if you wanted to learn how to set up IPv6 on your network, or if you wanted to learn to program IPv6-enabled apps. You also didn't indicate what OS you are using, which means you can really only get general answers.

Programming IPv6 apps is actually quite easy, and actually involves programming protocol family independent code if you want to do it right. On the client end, this basically involves using a function (getaddrinfo(3)) to get a linked list of all addresses associated with a given hostname in any protocol family (IPv4, v6, or even something fun like AppleTalk) and walking along the list until you get a good connection. This has the added advantage that if you are trying to connect to a host that has multiple IP addresses, and some of them are non-responsive (i.e. a round-robin DNS situation), your client will try connecting to each IP address until it succeeds.

If you're trying to learn how to configure and use IPv6 on your hosts, try some of these:

• Microsoft
• The Kame project (*BSD)
• The 6bone for general IPv6 stuff, as well as information on connecting to the experimental IPv6 backbone.
• Peter Bieringer's Linux IPv6 page.

Collection of Books/links

[abcess]

I've been messing around with IPv6 for a couple years, and reading about it for a couple more, which still puts me behind the curve a bit. Bottom line is this is really new stuff, and the kind of basic information out there is just that, basic, in the same way assembler is basic (though not as basic as straight machine code). There is very little in the way of easy to follow directions, let alone complete network stacks and applications to make use of them. If you want a (mostly) complete IPv6 stack, go with BSD.

The best web resource i've found for linux specific information is a HOWTO by Peter Bieringer. It's located at http://www.bieringer.de/linux/IPv6/index.html

http://www.hs247.com/ Has a bunch of links to a ton of information, and is OS agnostic.

One book I've found to be pretty helpful is called IPng and the TCP/IP protocols: Implementing the Next Generation Internet. The first half of the book rambles a bit, but the second half gets down to business quite nicely. It can be a bit technical at points, which I like, but may be a dry for some.

O'Reilly has a good article on 6to4 tunneling at http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2001/06/01/ipv6 _tutorial.html. The specifics are BSD oriented, but the concepts apply everywhere.

If you want to start writing some code that uses IPv6, the ever popular UNIX Network Programming is a great resource.