User:Wekeepwhatwekill/sandbox2

Introduction

IPV6 is Internet Protocol Version 6. Internet Protocol is a system that allows each computer to be identified on the internet. Each computer is issued a numeric address called an IP (Internet Protocol) address. That's a number that identifies the computer like a home address identifies a house. The reason we don't have to enter the I.P number to get to a webpage (we could if we wanted to , however ) is because the internet comes with a phone book, called a Domain Name Server (or DNS for short). When we enter a name, the domain name server looks at the name and checks its record and sees if it finds the IP number for that address, if it does, it considers this address valid and will bring you to it. For example, when you type in simple.wikipedia.org, the domain name server checks and finds this site listed as 91.198.174.192 (yep, this is an IP4 address) and because it sees this, it knows the site is valid and will bring you to it.

Under the previous version, IPV4 (Internet Protocol, Version 4), each computer on the internet was assigned a set of twelve decimal numbers. Those numbers were grouped into four sets of three numbers, with the groups separated by periods (for example 192.168.1.254). This worked well, but it was limited to 4.3 billion addresses. With more and more people using the internet on phones, computers, laptops, tablets, television sets, TiVO, Roku, and even refrigerators, there weren't enough IP addresses to go around. Therefore, on July 14, 2017, IPV6 was introduced to the internet.

How it works

Internet Protocol Version 4 used four sets of three decimal numbers separated by a period (for example: 192.168.1.254). Internet Protocol Version 6 uses 8 sets of hexadecimal numbers separated by colons (for example: 2001:0000:3238:DFE1:0063:0000:0000:FEFB). "Hexa" means 16, and as a matter of fact, the hexadecimal number system counts up to 16. In the Decimal system, we would be able to count to 16 by counting 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. In the hexadecimal system , we would start off normally, 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, however once we pass "9" we would use A,B,C,D,E,F for 10,11,12,13,14,15. For an example of this, please see the table below:

Decimal Hexadecimal 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 A 11 B 12 C 13 D 14 E 15 F

An IPV6 address converts a set of binary numbers into hexadecimal numbers. Binary numbers are 8 digits in length, use only "0" and "1", and read from right to left. It counts from 0 to 7, and it's written like this:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Each position from right to left is a power of 2 (that's 2 times 2 as many times as the power says, for example, 2 to the third power (usually written as 2³) is the same as 2 x 2 x 2, which equals 8. So, when decimals are read it's read as two to the power of:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

To make this clearer:

Binary Number 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 11111111 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128

In binary, 11111111 equals 1+2+4+8+16+32+64+128 or 256.

So, IPV6 starts out with a string of binary numbers like this:

00100000 00000001 00000000 00000000 00110010 00111000 1101111 111100001 00000000 01100011 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11111110 11111011

IPV6 cuts the 8 digit binary number in half and creates two sets of binary numbers in groups of four, like this:

0010 0000 0000 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0011 0010 0011 1000 1101 1111 1110 0001 0000 0000 0110 0011 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1111 1110 1111 1011

The numbers are read the same, still right to left, however, they count from 3 to 0 , right to left. The numbers are then converted from binary to hexadecimal. See the table below for a conversion from decimal to binary to hex:

Decimal Binary Hexadecimal 0 0000 0 1 0001 1 2 0010 2 3 0011 3 4 0100 4 5 0101 5 6 0110 6 7 0111 7 8 1000 8 9 1001 9 10 1010 A 11 1011 B 12 1100 C 13 1101 D 14 1110 E 15 1111 F

So this:
0010 0000 0000 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0011 0010 0011 1000 1101 1111 1110 0001 0000 0000 0110 0011 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1111 1110 1111 1011

become this:

2001:0000:3238:DFE1:0063:0000:0000:FEFB

because:

0010 = 2, 0000 = 0 , 0000 = 0, 0001 = 1 ....etc....

Rather than use a period "." as a seperator as IPV4 does, IPV6 uses a colon ":" to distinguish it's addresses from an IPV4 address. In the final version, the colon was appear every 16 bits

Why it works

IPV4 was able to handle 4.3 billion internet addresses, however, with everyone's phones, tablets, televisions, and even household appliances connecting to the internet, it was pretty obvious that more internet addresses were needed. IPV4 couldn't handle the demand for so many more IP addresses, so IPV6 was developed. IPV6 can handle 340 undecillion addresses. To put that into numbers:

IPV4: 4,294,967,296 addresses possible
IPV6: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses possible

In short, a great deal more addresses are available with this system.

Also, IPV6 allows for multicasting, that is, sending one network packet to multiple computers with one request. This would be like writing a letter (which would be what the packet actually is, a letter), dropping it in one envelope, and having it reach many different people in many different locations at the same time. IPV4 can multicast, but it's not something that's normally a part of IPV4, it has to be added in to work. IPV6 already knows how to multicast.

It can also automatically set up addresses for different computers on a network. IPV4 can do this as well, but it needs assistance from the router, IPV6 doesn't need assistance, it already knows what it needs to do, out of the box, so to speak!

IPV4 had no real privacy settings in it, your IP address could link right to you. IPV6 has privacy built-in, in the form of a helper program that works by generating random addresses then letting them go after a certain period of time.

Address formats

IPV6 has multiple formats it can take. The agreed upon, general format of an IP address is:

First 64 bits: =      Network Identifier
Second 64 bits: = Interface Identifier Total Bits: 128.

This is what you typically would see if you looked at someone's IP address on the internet. However, IPV6 is more versatile and can use different formats for different tasks.

General Multicast Address Format

Multicasting is when a single communication is addressed to multiple computers at the same time. Kind of like if you were on a mailing list and someone emailed the mailing list, everyone would be able to see it at the same time if they were online at the same time.

IPV6 can be set up for multicasting, it still follows the general address setup mentioned above, however, there are differences in the address:

First 10 bits: = The Prefix (It's always set to 1111 1111 or FF )
Second 54 bits: = Always set to consecutive 0's
Third 64 bits: = Group ID

The Device ID can consist of 1 - 2 decimal or Hexadecimal number which indicates which type of device is being used (see the examples below)

* One more thing to note: In IPV6, 0's can be abbreviated one time only with a double colon (::) *

Examples of IPV6 General Multicast Addresses are:

ff02::1 - The "1" is the device ID for all nodes (anyway the device can communicate this message can be used).
ff02::2 - The "2" is the device ID for all routers (any routers can be used, but any other method of communication cannot be used).
ff02::5 - The "5" is the device ID for all OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) routers. Any other type of router cannot be used).
ff02::9 - The "9" is the device ID for all RIP (Routing Information Protocol) routers. Any other type of router cannot be used).

There are other device ID's as well!

Link Local Address

This is a new concept in IP Address. It doesn't exist in IPV4 at all. The easiest way to describe it is to say that it is a combination of the default IPV4 address you computer would assign itself if it couldn't find any way to get to the internet, A DNS server, it's on every IPV6 router and IPV6 enabled server, and it's totally re-usable!

* A link local address always starts with fe80 followed by 54 zeros bits of zeros. The last 64 bits always provide the unique interface identifier.

IPV6 has an address format to it. The first 64 bits are the network's identifier. Those bits will remain the same for each network, for example, if the IPV6 address is:

2001:0000:3238:DFE1:0063:0000:0000:FEFB

the first 64 bits (the network identifier) would be

2001:0000:3238:DFE1.

The second set of 64 bits would be the host address, using our original IPV6 as an example, that would be:

0063:0000:0000:FEFB.

This would look a bit different in an office setting (like an office network). The first 48 bits would still be the network prefix, they'd still be the same (2001:0000:3238). The 49th to the to the 64th bit (the fourth grouping of four hex numbers) would be the subnet, in the case of our first IPV6 address that would be DFE1 (13,14,15,1 in hexadecimal) ( A subnet is a second network connected to the first network). The last four set of four digit numbers would be your device address (0063:0000:0000:FEFB). The device address is the actual IPV6 address that connects to your Android, your computer, your T.V set, pretty much any device that's online will get an address from this section!