IPv6 in the palm of your hand

by Craig Miller

With the all of the major wireless providers in the US, and large service providers, like Sky, in Europe now offering native IPv6 service (see Glass Half Full), there is no time like the present to learn the new protocol, IPv6.

No IPv6 here

And yet even with all this new IPv6 access available, there are still many who's first reaction to a problem is to turn off IPv6. Like ostriches, it seems like they would rather stick their head in the sand, and hope that IPv6 will go away.

A new IPv6 device

I recently bought a new Android cell phone. Alas, in Canada there is only one provider, Telus, who offers IPv6 wireless service. And I am not their customer. Fortunately, I do have an IPv6 WLAN. While re-installing my useful apps on the new phone, I took a look at the Android IPv6 apps that are out there. And I was surprised and disappointed  to see the abundance of "disable IPv6" apps out there. Seriously, there has got to be a better way.

Step into the future, rather than disable IPv6

Helpful apps

But there were other apps as well, to help one learn IPv6. There is an excellent Hurricane Electric* IPv6 Network Tools, which can tell you a lot about your network.

There are even an IPv6 subnet calculators, which of course, aren't really required, since IPv6 does not have variable subnet masking (see Simplifying Subnetting), making things much easier than IPv4.

IPv6 in the palm of your hand

With Apple pushing in iOS 10 for full IPv6-only networking in their apps, and Android IPv6 helpful apps, you can now learn IPv6 on your phone while waiting for your coffee at Starbucks. Ah, good coffee, and the future of the internet in your hand,  it is a good time to explore IPv6.


*Hurricane Electric is an excellent IPv6 service provider, and offers free IPv6 tunnels for those who do not have native IPv6 service.