Author: Gratien D'haese

After 30 years of faithful duty the current Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) has reached its limits in available addressing space. Ten years ago the successor protocol IPv6 was developed, but was not widely accepted, because the operating systems (and backbone routers) did not support it very well. However, today it becomes urgent to adopt and switch to IPv6, because we have no other choice. It is only a matter of months that new official IP addresses (delivered by RIPE) will be IPv6 only. Time has come that we, Unix/Linux addicts, get our acts together and learn to use (and understand) the IPv6 protocol. We do not expect you are a network guru, but rather approach it toward system engineers. Keep it simple and understandable for the audience with plenty of examples. It is the purpose that at the end of the presentation you will be able to start experimenting with the new wonderful IPv6 networks and have enough knowledge about the network commands to kick it off.