Is IPv6 useful/going to be the future?

[Geofram]

Yesterday, I was tinkering with my wireless network, and while looking at the ipconfig, I saw something I've basically ignored for the last couple years since I went over to Vista/Windows 7 - IPv6 information.

This lead to me doing some rudimentary Google searching on the topic. It sounds like there are plenty of advantages to it; but it's over 10 years old and still basically unused. Is there a reason why that is?

It also sounds like Microsoft is trying to move people over to using it, including features that require IPv6 to use.

Is there any chance this will eventually become the norm? It certainly looks like it's more complicated to set up than a basic IPv4 network.

So, I'm just curious from any of our networking professionals what the basic stance is on IPv6 at this point, and if it will ever be something that the home/enthusiast crowd will use.

 

[theevilsharpie]

It sounds like there are plenty of advantages to it; but it's over 10 years old and still basically unused. Is there a reason why that is?

Legacy equipment doesn't support it or supports only portions of it, and replacing legacy equipment is expensive.

Is there any chance this will eventually become the norm? It certainly looks like it's more complicated to set up than a basic IPv4 network.

Yes. It will slowly be phased is as more core devices and end nodes support the protocol properly.

IPv6 isn't really any more complicated than IPv4, and some things are simpler because they're part of the protocol and not add-ons (e.g. IPSec). It just looks intimidating because the address range is so large.

So, I'm just curious from any of our networking professionals what the basic stance is on IPv6 at this point, and if it will ever be something that the home/enthusiast crowd will use.

You will eventually use it.