IP version 6 (IPv6) is the latest standard for Internet Protocol, utilizing 128 bits to support a much larger number of addresses compared to the 32 bits of IPv4, which has run out of available addresses. An IPv6 address is formatted as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, such as 2a00:1450:400f:80a::200e, and can be shortened using specific rules.
The fully expanded IPv6 address is 2a00:1450:400f:080a:0000:0000:0000:200e, while the localhost address can be simplified to ::1 or just ::. Like IPv4, IPv6 also supports networks and subnets. Here’s the format of the IPv6 header:
The IPv6 header is more straightforward and provides enhanced capacity for IP addressing. As IPv6 adoption increases, many tools now support it, enabling users to switch between IPv4 and IPv6 using flags like -4 and -6 with the ping command. You can check for IPv6 addresses with ipconfig and test connectivity using ping -6 google.com for IPv6 and ping -4 google.com for IPv4.
| Note: If you don’t have IPv6 currently, many public cloud services offer public IPv6 addresses that you can use for experimentation and exploration. |