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Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) represents the next-generation protocol designed to replace IPv4, which still remains to be the most commonly used protocol in the Internet, though it’s nearly twenty years old now. The main reason for using another protocol is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses needed by all new machines added to the Internet.

IPv6 has a vastly larger address space than IPv4. This results from the use of a 128-bit address, whereas IPv4 uses only 32 bits. The new address space thus supports 2^128 (about 3.4×10^38) addresses. Thus IPv6 eliminates the need for network address translation (NAT), which gained widespread deployment as an effort to solve the problem of IPv4 address exhaustion.

Of course, IPv4 address exhaustion is not the only problem that can be fixed by IPv6. Moreover IPv6 has other important improvements to IPv4 such as routing, network autoconfiguration, network security and etc.

In addition to the above mentioned improvements here the significant advantages of IPv6 which can be very important for the end users:

1. Static IP-addresses for your computers

Nowadays, in case you don’t have direct IPv6, the best way to connect to IPv6 is to register an account at a tunnel broker’s site. A tunnel broker is a company that offers service (for free) of transferring your traffic from IPv4 to IPv6 and backwards.

Using this method user gets his/her own IPv6 subnet, which is tied not to the current IPv4 address, but to his/her account (login and password). Thus you have the opportunity not just to get the range of IPv6 addresses, but to use them even if you change your IPv4 provider.

Moreover, every user gets a subnet /64, which is enough to connect to the network 2^64 devices and assign them static Internet addresses. This means that you can access any computer of your network directly (via its address) without the necessity to use NAT.

Some users may think that security problems will appear in this case, isn’t it? In fact there is no reason to worry. The only thing you should do is to configure your firewall, so it doesn’t pass connections from the Internet to the local network, except the ones that were allowed.

2. Higher speed for torrents downloading

BitTorrent Protocol is designed in such a way that users who do not have the opportunity to receive incoming connection (provider’s NAT is used) can “torrent” the files just from the users who have own IP address (NAT is not used). That’s why the growing shortage of IPv4 addresses will cause the decrease in amount of torrent peers and seeds.

If you use IPv6 there is no need to worry about this problem, because IPv6 users can get own IP addresses even in case their IPv4 provider uses NAT for them. Of course, you should check if your favorite tracker supports IPv6.

3. Long-lived connections that remain even after IPv4 address changing

   Internet access control systems of some providers work in such a way that maximum duration of an Internet connection is equal to 24 hours, after which a forced disconnection takes place. During the repeated connection new IP-address is given. This can happen while you are chatting, playing online games, use different online services and etc.
   If you connect using IPv6, there won’t be a disconnection while IPv4 address is changing, because IPv6 remains the same. The only thing that will happen is discontinuance of data transfer for 15 seconds – the time needed for a tunnel broker to get the info about new IPv4.

However despite all the improvements and advantages the worldwide penetration of IPv6 protocol is still less than one percent of Internet-enabled hosts in any country; though IPv6 has been implemented on all major operating systems in commercial, business, and home consumer environments.

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