IPv6 coming to a root server near you

Filed under: Internet

IPv6 coming to a root server near you

by Todd Ritter Feb 5th 2008

IPv6 authoritative nameserver records are in the process of being added to six of the world's thirteen DNS root servers. Root servers are the computers at the top of the DNS hierarchy that are crucial in helping you turn downloadsquad.com into an IP address for your computer's benefit. This change means that networks using IPv6 will be able to use the root servers to resolve Internet hostnames without using IPv4.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is the future successor of IPv4. IPv6 is becoming increasingly necessary as the world runs out of IPv4 addresses (like 100.10.1.1). IPv6 has a much larger address space since it uses 128bits per address instead of 32bits like IPv4.

Unlike IPv4 where you're often provided one public IP address that you have to share with many devices, IPv6 eliminates common network configuration headaches like network-address translation (think: port forwards) since everything in your house from your computer to your Xbox to your Tivo could have a unique public IP address.

[Via BBC News]

Tags: dns, internet, ip address, IpAddress, ipv6, root servers, RootServers

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