IPv6: Tips for transitioning

Migrating to IPv6 shouldn’t be an all-or-nothing venture. Most networks will be running equipment with both IPv4 and IPv6 TCP/IP stacks for several years. This podcast has several tips that should make the transition easier.
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Mr. Joe Klein has once again consented to be our IPv6 expert. Just in case you missed the first podcast, Joe is a senior IPv6 security researcher for Command Information, holds many professional accreditations, and is a member of the North American IPv6 Task Force. Listen to the podcast.

Point of this podcast

In this podcast, Joe discusses what we need to consider when actually transitioning to IPv6. The following two questions seemed especially relevant:

• Let’s say I’m told that I have to prepare an action plan for converting to IPv6. Where and how should I start?
• Is there such a thing as transitioning where IPv4 and IPv6 are working together? Is there any value in doing that?

Additional notes

Once again, I’ve linked Joe’s entire presentation “Joe Klein Hope Presentation” (pdf) because it has all sorts of useful details about transitioning to IPv6. The following slides are especially pertinent to this podcast. The first slide shows how you’re able to determine if IPv6 is already enabled on the computer in question:

The next slide enumerates the three available options for connecting to the Internet using IPv6:

The following slide depicts the intermediate steps for transitioning to a total IPv6 network:

The final slide mentions the available transition options. Using 6 to 4 allows IPv6 packets to be transmitted over an IPv4 network. Teredo is a tunneling protocol designed to grant IPv6 connectivity to nodes that are located behind IPv4 NAT devices by encapsulating IPv6 packets within IPv4 UDP datagrams:

Final thoughts

By all appearances, we’ll be in transition mode for the foreseeable future. Just knowing that is a great head start, as many people I’ve talked to are under the impression that it was an all-or-nothing process.

If you missed the first in this series of podcasts, here’s the link “IPv6: Why Is It Needed?” I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Joe Klein for enlightening us about the transition details of IPv6 and Sonja Thompson, TechRepublic Senior Editor, for her help in making it so.