IPv6: The essential guide

31.07.2009
Been meaning to catch up on IPv6, the next generation Internet Protocol? We've backtracked and collected a handful of stories that will get you up to speed well before IPv4 addresses run out.

QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS

Invisible IPv6 traffic poses serious network threat: Even if you haven't made the move to IPv6 yet, you might unwittingly have IPv6 traffic on your network, and that's probably not a good thing since you're probably not set up to see, manage or block it. And that could be opening the door for IPv6 traffic that includes attacks such as botnet command and controls. . 

Biggest mistake for IPv6 is that it's not backwards compatible, developers admit: The Internet engineering community says its biggest mistake in developing IPv6 is that it lacks backwards compatibility with IPv4. Leaders of the IETF have admitted that they didn't do a good enough job making sure native IPv6 devices and networks would be able to communicate with their IPv4-only counterparts when they designed the industry standard 13 years ago.  

No business case for IPv6, survey finds: Business incentives are completely lacking today for upgrading to IPv6, the next generation Internet protocol, according to a survey of network operators conducted by the Internet Society (ISOC). ISOC says that ISPs, enterprises and network equipment vendors report that there are "no concrete business drivers for IPv6." However, survey respondents said customer demand for IPv6 is on the rise and that they are planning or deploying IPv6 because they feel it is the next major development in the evolution of the Internet.