IT Brief New Zealand - Technology news for CIOs & IT decision-makers
Story image
Check your system for IPv6 compatibility
Tue, 7th Jun 2011
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Update: IPv6 Day will run from 12 noon in New Zealand, for 24 hours. Gen-i has an IPv6 test site here. More info available on IPv6 in New Zealand from ipv6.org.nz.

The current IP version that assigns internet addresses ran out of numbers earlier this year. IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is being introduced as the successor.

On 8 June, major web companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft will implement IPv6 on their websites for 24 hours to test how it goes in the real world.

Google says it will be using IPv6 for all its Apps, including Gmail, Calendar and Docs.

The company has released information to help users check their configurations ahead of time.

"More than 99.9 percent of people shouldn't have any problems during this industry-wide test, but your experience on June 8th will depend on your computer and network configuration.

- If you only have IPv4, you’ll simply use IPv4 as usual and not see any test-related problems.

- If your configuration is ready for IPv6, you’ll automatically use IPv6 and not see any test-related problems. - In rare cases if you have IPv6 enabled but not configured properly, you may have connectivity issues with Google Apps and other test sites on June 8th."

To check your IPv6 preparedness, visit ipv6test.google.com. If you discover IPv6 problems, find troubleshooting tips and more information here. Major issues can be submitted to Google here.