IPv6 adoption remains slow despite 25 years of availability, but it's ready for production use. The article explores IPv6 transition mechanisms through a week-long experiment using only IPv6 connectivity. Key mechanisms covered include dual-stack (running both protocols), NAT64 (translating IPv6 to IPv4 at the gateway), DNS64 (synthesizing IPv6 addresses for IPv4-only domains), and 464XLAT (combining network-level NAT64 with client-level translation). Results show about half of major sites support IPv6 natively, NAT64 with DNS64 provides adequate functionality for most use cases, and 464XLAT offers the best user experience with no visible downsides. Apple devices have excellent IPv6 support with automatic 464XLAT configuration, while other operating systems vary in quality.
Table of contents
Contents ⌗Video ⌗Crash Course on IPv6 ⌗Advantages for the Homelab ⌗Transition Mechanisms ⌗Lessons Learned ⌗Sort: