Windows 7: Internet lights up with new IPv6 connections

Hi everyone
maybe I've missed something here -- perhaps you guys who work in I.T can't see the woods for the trees in this instance.

(Only concerned with PRIVATE - non work related stuff here).

You have router X which connects to your ISP so you get Internet connection

Your browser says I want to look at site xxx.yy.zzz

surely it's the ISP's DNS stuff that should get you from site xxx.yy.zzz to the actual physical address whether it's IPV4 / IPV6 or IPV 999_man_and_his_dog.

The end user doesn't have to worry or care a stiff. The ISP after DNS translation will send the web page back to the requester.

Have I missed something here or are the I.T guys trying to build up "Ivory Towers" hoping on people's ignorance to land nice fat lucrative contracts. I remember similar nonsense at the W2K Millennium which passed off without planes falling out of the sky etc.

I know network's aren't that easy but for individuals here I can't for the life of me understand what the problem is.

I could technically on my router have an IP address of say 1 (never mind the other digits )

so long as I can connect with my ISP and pass it as a parameter the WWW address of the web site the DNS servers on the ISP should be able to resolve whatever I need to access the site (IPV4 / IPV6 or IPV_9 million and one) and return me the web page.

What have I missed here -- I'm a simple Engineer not an I.T specialist.

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo, one of the articles that Brink posted explains why IPv6 is a required upgrade.

Why is IPv6 necessary?
The most obvious answer is that IPv4 is out of IP addresses. IPv4 has only 4.3 billion addresses, and with PCs, smartphones, tablets, gaming systems, and just about everything else connecting to the Internet we’ve tapped the system dry. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses and is capable of 340 undecillion addresses. That is 340 times 10 to the 36th power, or 340 trillion trillion trillion possible IP addresses.

IPv6: Five Things You Should Know | PCWorld Business Center

Hi there

I'm not trying to be obtuse or obdurate here but you still haven't answered my basic question

I KNOW that we are running out of IP addresses on the old IPV4 system.

BUT NOBODY in I.T has actually answered my real question.

I'll try and explain this in SIMPLE basic English (Can do it in Icelandic if you want) !!.

I'm a stupid dumb user sitting at a PC connected to my internet provider.

I use my web browser to say get access to sexy.susie.be or we.hate.euro2012.be or we.love.all.footie.be or whatever.

now surely the DNS servers on the ISP site should do all the translation and retrieve the appropriate web page(es).

It can't matter to the end user whether the target website is IPV4 / IPV6 or however many numbers it needs to resolve the address. That's for the isp TO FIX.

So again IT guys what have I missed here. -- seems simple to me at least from the consumers end. OK the ISP needs to have stuff in place for these addresses but to the "average" joe out there this stuff should be 100% totally transparent.


Cheers
jimbo

I think you might have confused what DNS actually does. The 'DNS', in layman terms, is basically a map. This map just says that, for example, a house is located on 1234 xyz street.

Think of IPv4 as telephone # minus country code and ipv6 as full telephone number including country code. Now lets say your ISP can only call inside the USA, that makes it IPv4, but now you cant call other countries because you cant dial outside the USA because of the lack of Country Code support.

What you may be thinking about is NAT 64
NAT64 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It basically translates IPv4 to Ipv6 and vice-versa, but it is not considered a "DNS".

Hi there
I'm still confused -- I'm sitting at a computer going through an ISP

It's up to the ISP to translate the web site I'm wanting to the target destination and return the response.

As far as the computer user is concerned it's just wires going into a box or wireless to a router which then connects to the ISP.

Why should as far as the end user is concerned any of this stuff make the slightest bit of difference.

Now for service providers etc then that's totally another issue -- hardly my concern.

Same as receiving say TV -- if I get it through a cable box it doesn't matter HOW the cable company got the TV or where they got it from --Internet / Satellite or whatever.

Cheers
jimbo

The ISP's only responsibility is getting you a signal that can reach the outside world of the internet. Take for example where in the United States the TV signal was changed from NTSC to ATSC. Digital television transition in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
People either had to buy a new TV to support the standard or buy a set top box that did the conversion. But the Government did offer an incentive, a $40 Gov. issued 'instant rebate'/ deduction card to help people get their set top boxes for as low as $5 to $10.

Basically the ISP can support IPv6 but it is not their job to ensure that you can reach IPv6 addresses. For example my ISP Time Warrner Cable/ Road Runner has IPv6 support in my residential are. Great, rite? Not really, unless my Router, supports IPv6 I cant access IPv6 addresses. My router does not naively support IPv6, but through DDWRT, I can set it up to receive an IPv6 address and distribute IPv6 addresses on my local network.

As a recap:

• The ISP's job is to get packets from point "A" to point "B", much like a commuter transit train.
• The ISP does not have to guarantee you can actually see IPV6 addresses if you hardware does not support IPv6.
• If at a point in time IPv6 becomes necessarily your ISP may give you a new router for free or the Gov. makes it mandatory that ISPs offer incentives to upgrading your router.

How can you tell if your router is IPv6 capable? What setting would I be looking for?

I have a Trendnet TEW-691GR. I've been through all of the settings and can't find anything related to IPv4 or 6. So I'm assuming for the time being that it is not capable.

Hi there
then people have screwed up this stuff BIG TIME.

I still say that as an end user if I type in www.sexi.susie.be for example the ISP should be able to receive that command from the router and transmit it to the web site and return me the page.

If it doesn't work like that -- then it should.

This would ensure you would never have to worry how the addresses are handled --you pass a STRING URL of the site you want to visit and the router should return an XML or whatever is used to render the page in IE.

All the address translations should be done by the ISP.

seems a totally simple Engineering problem to solve:

pass a parameter string of a URL you want to visit and receive as a return a string containing a table of the XML stuff of the target website which I.E will render for you before displaying on your screen.

What's the prob -- Ist year Visual Basic students can do this.


-- but I'm an Engineer not an IT comms guy --even so I can't fathom for the life of me why this stuff should be a problem for the end user.

cheers
jimbo

I agree. However, if it is something done automatically, it would be good if there were a way to be able to verify whether the address reached is IPv4 or IPv6. That would not only confirm that all is working as it should, but also provide a means of diagnosing any problems that a person might have in the future. If it is this way, then I do not understand why there is not a clear statement to that effect that I have been able to find, and articles exist, like the one that I posted in post 16 above? How would anyone find the right link for a particular website, if it were a long cryptic one like shown in that article?

And that's just how it works now (in my experience) for syria, Iran, south Africa and the Philippines where 99% of the traffic is proxied and ultimately state (or other) controlled.