IPv6 World Launch Day 6 June 2012

[Ardua]

Apparently, today is IPv6 World Launch Day. The last IPv4 addresses were released in February 2012, and the rollout of IPv6 will generate an additional 340 Sextillion addresses.

What I have noticed over the past few months, with IPv6 enabled on my router, is that my Mac products are favouring IPv6 sites when they are available. For those who are not Mac users, Mac OSX selects the faster of IPv4 and 6.

[Bill]

What I have noticed over the past few months, with IPv6 enabled on my router, is that my Mac products are favouring IPv6 sites when they are available.

I'm not sure if it's part of the IPv6 spec, but it's certainly the preferred behaviour for any system that can handle both.

For those who are not Mac users, Mac OSX selects the faster of IPv4 and 6.

Ermm... no. If IPv6 is available it will use it, it doesn't do a speed check. Because not all routes support IPv6 it's usually slower than IPv4 (longer routes, longer pings etc). The speed/ping tests and stats on this site are illuminating.

[Steve]

I believe Ardua is correct certainly for OS X Lion in that it will select the fastest response from IPv4 or IPv6 requests-


http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/05/the-future-is-forever-the-state-of-ipv6-in-the-apple-world/


"During most of the reign of Snow Leopard, this "happy eyeballs" approach had an unexpected side effect. Sometimes sites wouldn't load at all when running IPv6-only, because the IPv6 connectivity was deemed insufficient. However, this issue seems to have been fixed in the 10.6.8 update. In 10.7 Lion, the eyeballs were made even happier because now the system will try to talk to a remote destination that has IPv6 and IPv4 over both protocols and then settle on the one that is fastest. What I see a lot is that a first connection uses IPv6, and then subsequent ones use IPv4, as my (tunneled) IPv6 at home is somewhat slower than my IPv4."

[Bill]

as my (tunneled) IPv6 at home is somewhat slower than my IPv4."

Tunneled IPv6 is IPv4 wearing a disguise... it's not a good example. I'm pretty sure I'm correct for native IPv6.

[Ardua]

Thanks Steve. I have just read the TBB article on IPv6 on my IPad so IOS 5 seems to operate to the same logic as Lion. I have to confess that it just works - I do not spend a lot of time worrying about it. I have noticed though that my IPv6 address refreshes every 3 days or so. It may just be a Fritz!Box thing. My router is set for Native IPv6.

[Steve]

Certainly for Thinkbroadband I connected just now via IPv6 , I don't know which has the fastest response either . The add-on 'show ip' for Firefox confirms whether your using an IPv4 or IPv6 connection in the status bar

[Bill]

I have noticed though that my IPv6 address refreshes every 3 days or so. It may just be a Fritz!Box thing. My router is set for Native IPv6.

IDNet IPv6 addresses are dynamic, so it may be that you get occasional brief disconnections for some reason. The router log should show what's happening, but I don't use a Fritz!Box so can't be sure.

[Steve]

Currently FF is using IPv6 for facebook and google, now whether there's any difference in how Safari and FF interact with OS X Lion to determine connectivity I've no idea.

[Bill]

Opera uses IPv6 if it's available but doesn't tell you which it's using, I have to rely on the site telling me somewhere.

Tbb is currently v6, but Opera also has an oddity- if IPv6 to a currently open site is lost for any reason for it will revert to v4 and stay there for that site even when v6 comes back.

Opening a tab to a "new" site will connect via v6 if it can, so it's definitely the browser not the OS. Only way to get v6 back for the "v6 dead" site is to re-start Opera! Haven't tried it with Safari.