IPv6 Addressing Support

Great news! Giganet supports IPv6 addressing for all Home Broadband services.

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is the new version of Internet Protocol (IP) addressing where there are considerably more IP addresses than the previous version - IPv4.

IPv6 Device Support

Giganet's routers all support IPv6, so to get up and running with IPv6, you will have everything you need to get started.

Most modern up to date computers, mobile phones, tablets and devices support IPv6, however some smart devices such as TVs, IoT (smart lights, thermostats, CCTV) will not.

If your device doesn't support IPv6, then it will just use IPv4.

If your device does support IPv6, then it will usually prefer to connect over IPv6 rather than IPv4. For example, if you browse to Google or Facebook, or stream a video from Netflix (both who support IPv6), then your devices should use IPv6 to transfer data.

How many IPv6 addresses will I receive?

All Home Broadband customers will receive a massive /48 delegate prefix. This is an enormous allocation.

Delegated IPv6 /48 prefixes are statically assigned, so if your connection drops, you will receive the same prefix.

How IPv6 appears in your Giganet UltraHub router

• Log in to the router at http://192.168.1.1, the username is admin, the password is written on the rear of the router as "access key".
• Click on the Internet Access box to reveal the window below.
• If you have IPv6 enabled, you will see the IPv6 toggle on, and you will see your IPv6 addresses and prefix below.

How you know whether your devices are using IPv6

• Log in to the Giganet UltraHub router at http://192.168.1.1, the username is admin, the password is written on the rear of the router as "access key".
• Click anywhere on the header to the Devices box to reveal the Devices window as shown below.
• If a device supports IPv6, you will see the IPv6 address assigned to the device as illustrated below. If the device does not support IPv6, then it will not show an IPv6 address and will only show an IPv4 address.

Benefits of IPv6

The benefits are pretty technical/geeky, but if you're interesting to learn more, here are six reasons that IPv6 is an improvement over IPv4.

from Network Computing.com.

1. More Efficient Routing
   IPv6 reduces the size of routing tables and makes routing more efficient and hierarchical. IPv6 allows ISPs to aggregate the prefixes of their customers' networks into a single prefix and announce this one prefix to the IPv6 Internet. In addition, in IPv6 networks, fragmentation is handled by the source device, rather than the router, using a protocol for discovery of the path's maximum transmission unit (MTU).
2. More Efficient Packet Processing
   IPv6's simplified packet header makes packet processing more efficient. Compared with IPv4, IPv6 contains no IP-level checksum, so the checksum does not need to be recalculated at every router hop. Getting rid of the IP-level checksum was possible because most link-layer technologies already contain checksum and error-control capabilities. In addition, most transport layers, which handle end-to-end connectivity, have a checksum that enables error detection.
3. Directed Data Flows
   IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast. Multicast allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows (like multimedia streams) to be sent to multiple destinations simultaneously, saving network bandwidth. Disinterested hosts no longer must process broadcast packets. In addition, the IPv6 header has a new field, named Flow Label, that can identify packets belonging to the same flow.
4. Simplified Network Configuration
   Address auto-configuration (address assignment) is built in to IPv6. A router will send the prefix of the local link in its router advertisements. A host can generate its own IP address by appending its link-layer (MAC) address, converted into Extended Universal Identifier (EUI) 64-bit format, to the 64 bits of the local link prefix.
5. Support For New Services
   By eliminating Network Address Translation (NAT), true end-to-end connectivity at the IP layer is restored, enabling new and valuable services. Peer-to-peer networks are easier to create and maintain, and services such as VoIP and Quality of Service (QoS) become more robust.
6. Security
   IPSec, which provides confidentiality, authentication and data integrity, is baked into in IPv6. Because of their potential to carry malware, IPv4 ICMP packets are often blocked by corporate firewalls, but ICMPv6, the implementation of the Internet Control Message Protocol for IPv6, may be permitted because IPSec can be applied to the ICMPv6 packets.