7.9. IPv6

Just when you thought you were beginning to understand IP networking, the rules get changed! IPv6 is the shorthand notation for version 6 of the Internet Protocol. IPv6 was developed primarily to overcome the concerns in the Internet community. Users worried that there would soon be a shortage of IP addresses to allocate. IPv6 addresses are 16 bytes long (128 bits). IPv6 incorporates a number of other changes, mostly simplifications, that will make IPv6 networks more managable than IPv4 networks.

Linux already has a working (but not complete) IPv6 implementation in the 2.2.* series kernels.

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