Everyone is talking about IPv6 now, and the truth is that it’s really here. The first people to get interested in this new network protocol were programmers who did network security research at a government agency. They noticed that if a router ever had to hand over control of a network to an outside party, such as a service provider, or to another organization entirely, it would need to be able to handle the packet.
With this in mind, the original protocol was invented to enable new networks to be established. It took network engineers years to figure out how to deal with the stream of data. Every time a packet of data was sent, a server was sent a new series of headers which allowed it to fill in the details of what had gone wrong. Once it did, it was able to determine if the network could handle it or not.
Of course, not every network is going to have a serious problem dealing with this new protocol. Still, many are running into problems, and the most common ones are the ones where the firewall does not recognize the new address or the one where it doesn’t realize that the header is not a part of the original packet.
Of course, even for those who don’t have these problems, there is still a simple solution. In fact, I’d say that the solution lies within the router itself.
Instead of having to waste your time trying to figure out how to deal with IPv6 traffic, you can simply make sure your router is up to date with all the latest updates. As far as what you should be doing, there are basically two things you can do.
You can have your router receives IPv6 routing and filter traffic before it goes anywhere. There are different versions of routing that can handle this routing, and some of them are better than others. One of the more popular ones is BGP. Most routers should already have this built into them, and it will work in IPv6 without any changes.
Another option is to use the “traffic shaping” feature in your router. This feature has existed for quite some time, and many of the latest routers have this built into them. It works the same way as your regular routing algorithm, but it will have filters in place to limit the amount of data going through your network.
If you’re using a router that’s set to accept IPv6 routing, then the best thing you can do is to always send the data through when the IP version is IPv6. When it comes to routers that don’t support IPv6, it is up to you to decide whether you’re going to send the data through or not.
It is likely that most of your traffic will go through if you’re using BGP to route it through, so this is the best option for you. If you’re not using a router with this feature, you can take a look at what the WAN segment of your network is and see if you can implement a similar routing algorithm there.
Even with routers that do have this feature built in, it is still possible for your clients to get confused when they attempt to connect to your site when they try to connect to a site that uses IPv6. This is especially true if the clients don’t have any prior knowledge of how to distinguish between what is actually data and what is not.
If you’re still not convinced that this type of congestion only affects your customers, then you might want to consider that the real problem here is with you. If you only route IPv6 traffic through, then you might as well not have it in the first place.
Bypassing the gateway, and all traffic that goes through your Internet connection, is the best solution. Your site will be ready to handle everything that comes in the near future, and even if you’re not, your customers will be able to at least tell when they are using a service that is using something other than IPv4 addresses.