Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the “new” Internet addressing protocol created by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the exhaustion of the current IPv4 address space. What does that mean to you and I? Ultimately, it means very little. The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 has been going on, very slowly, for the last 13 years. However, something rather significant occurred on February 1, 2011, the last IPv4 blocks were allocated from IANA to the Regional Internet Registries (RIR) around the world. That means there are no more Internet Protocol version 4 addresses left to allocate to those authorities. So, when they’ve been allocated out, they’re gone forever.
This badge will track the total available IPv4 addresses at each registry:
Over the next several years, you will start to utilize IPv6, so now is the time to start to expose yourself to the IPv6 world. There is a fantastic resource found at Hurricane Electric for doing just that, an IPv6 Certification. In this article, I’m going to walk you through becoming an IPv6 Enthusiast, in my next article I will walk you through going from Enthusiast to a Sage, the top Certification that Hurricane Electric currently provides.
Newb
The first step to becoming a certified Newb (sorry just too funny) is signing up for a free account at Hurricane Electric. You’re going to eventually, probably, use their Tunnelbroker IPv6 service to enable you to talk on the IPv6 Internet, so go register for an account now. Once you have an account, you can access the IPv6 Certification program offered at Hurricane Electric. An IPv6 Newb is someone that can pass an initial IPv6 quiz. All of the answers to the quiz can be found in the IPv6 Primer. The only tricky question was one that asked about differentiating different address formats, and the Primer didn’t cover IPv6 addressing that well. So, here’s a hint: IPv6 addresses are Hexadecimal; they can only contain characters 0-9 and A-F.
If you pass the short quiz, congratulations, you’re now a certified IPv6 Newb.
Explorer
Taking the next step, you’re going to actually begin using IPv6 on your local computer. Chances are you cannot natively run IPv6 on the Internet. That would require your ISP to provide you with routable IPv6 space. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot talk on the Internet using IPv6, you just have to Tunnel it.
In order to get your IPv6 Explorer certification, you’re going to have to access a web page at Hurricane Electric over IPv6. To do this you’re going to have to tunnel IPv6 inside of IPv4. Fortunately, if you’re running a Macintosh and OS X, you’re in luck. Just download Miredo for OS X. Once you have it installed and enabled, you’ll be running IPv6 using the Teredo Tunneling Protocol. If you’re on Unix, you can download Miredo for your platform as well. For Windows, you probably already have a Teredo interface running, just check under the preferences for your network interface and set it to “Obtain an IPv6 address automatically”.
You should now be able to access IPv6-only websites, specifically the test page.
If the test page shows your IPv6 address, congratulations, you’re now a certified IPv6 Explorer.
If you wish, you can also test your IPv6 setup by using Jason Fesler’s excellent IPv6 Readiness Test.
Or surf Google via IPv6 here.
Finally, a nice resource to always quickly check your IPv6 address is here.
Make sure to take the Explorer Technical Test under Additional Tests in the left navigation if you want extra points.
Enthusiast
The IPv6 Enthusiast is someone who is beginning to have a solid understanding of this new protocol. For this certification, you’re going to have to enable a website that is reachable via IPv6. Hopefully, you’re on a Macintosh, as that’s the only example I’m going to walk through, though you shouldn’t have much of a problem getting any Unix/Linux variant working properly.
There are three ways you can accomplish this stage, and how you do it will depend on what you have:
- An IPv6 Web Hosting Service such as webhosting.att.com (you may also host at Host Virtual for $10 a month)
- If you have an IPv6-tunnel-capable Router (like an AirPort Extreme) you can build a tunnel and host on your Mac
- It will probably work to just host on your Mac using your IPv6 Tunnel Address
For all of these options, you’re also going to need to have a DNS domain you can control. Because you’re going to have to serve up a AAAA DNS record for your website.
I decided to tunnel IPv6 on my AirPort Extreme so that my local computers could run dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 without needing individual tunnels. Here’s how (it was super easy). First, access your AirPort Extreme (works on Time Capsule as well) using the AirPort Utility on your Macintosh.
AirPort Extreme IPv6 Tunnel
Select the Advanced tab, the IPv6 configuration pane, and select Tunnel as the IPv6 Mode.
Now, create an IPv6 Tunnel at Hurricane Electric using their Tunnelbroker service. You’ll provide them the IPv4 address that your AirPort Extreme uses to access the Internet, as the origination point of your IPv6 tunnel, HE will provide you back a bunch of information about your tunnel.
Configure your AirPort Extreme
Configure your AirPort Extreme using the following information from Hurricane Electric:
- Set the AirPort Extreme Remote IPv4 Address to be the Tunnelbroker Server IPv4 address
- Set the AirPort Extreme WAN IPv6 Address to be the Tunnelbroker Client IPv6 address (remove /64 from the end)
- Set the AirPort Extreme IPv6 Default Route to be the Tunnelbroker Server IPv6 address (remove /64 from the end)
- Set the AirPort Extreme LAN IPv6 Address to be the Tunnelbroker Routed /64 (remove /64 from the end)
Update your AirPort Extreme and it should reboot, when it comes back you should have an IPv6 Tunnel running to Hurricane Electric.
For some reason my AirPort Extreme constantly reports an IPv6 Tunnel Error. However, I’ve tested the heck out of it, and it works fine, so if you have this problem and everything is working, don’t worry about it.
Secure your IPv6 Installation
You also want to secure your IPv6 installation and enable Web Server access. While you may have a Firewall today, that Firewall is either going to block ALL IPv6 traffic (by preventing Protocol 41 from passing) or NONE, so you need to have an IPv6 Firewall. Fortunately, Apple provided one in the AirPort Extreme. First, make sure you have Block incoming IPv6 connections enabled on this pane, then select the IPv6 Firewall pane. Under Exceptions click the plus ( + ) sign to add an exception to the Firewall.
Allow HTTP access through IPv6
Create the exception for HTTP using the following settings:
- Set the Description to anything you want, I used Web Server
- Set the IPv6 Address to your Macintosh’s IPv6 address (go to http://www.whatismyipv6.net/ to find it, or check your TCP/IP settings under the Network Preference Pane
- Allow Specific TCP and UDP ports
- Enter 80 under TCP Port(s) to enable HTTP traffic to your server
Configure your Macintosh
This is easy, you know, because it’s a Macintosh, and because it’s IPv6. Just make sure that Configure IPv6 is set to Automatically. Chances are this is already done, in which case you should see your newly acquired IPv6 Address on this screen.
Configure Macintosh for IPv6
To verify that your IPv6 address is working on the Internet, you can use Hurricane Electric’s Looking Glass. It should auto-fill with your current IPv6 address.
Hurricane Electric Looking Glass
Select Ping and just make sure your IPv6 address is in the text field before clicking Probe. Your output should look something like this:
Hurricane Electric Ping Output
If you get valid responses, congratulations, your Macintosh is on the IPv6 Internet.
Configure your Web Server
Let’s get your Macintosh serving a web page. Fortunately, this is as simple as checking a box. Go to System Preferences, select the Sharing Preference Pane, and check the Web Sharing checkbox.
Enable Web Sharing
Next, you’ll have to configure forward IPv6 DNS (known as a AAAA Record) for your web server. Hurricane Electric will allow you to host your domain name’s DNS on their servers. Setting up the NS records for your domain is beyond the scope of this article, and it’s long enough, but once you’ve pointed your domain to he.net, you’ll be able to setup a AAAA record for your website name pointing to the IPv6 address of your Macintosh. To add your domain hosting at HE use the Free DNS link at Hurricane Electric, then add your domain using the Add a new domain link in the left navigation.
Hurricane Electric Add Domain
Select a host name for your web server, then add it to your domain using HE’s hosting service by clicking the Edit Zone button for your newly added domain. Once there, add a AAAA record for your new host name pointing to the IP address that your Macintosh was assigned above, and you’re finished.
Hurricane Electric AAAA Record
You now have a valid IPv6 DNS record for your IPv6 connected Macintosh and a valid HTTP server! We’re just about done. Now is a good time to test that everything is working properly, using Hurricane Electric’s IPv6 Port Scanner. You should see, at a minimum, that Port 80 (HTTP) is open (in my screen shot, I’ve skipped ahead and you’ll also see Port 25 (SMTP) is open):
Hurricane Electric Port Scan
If your Port Scan checks out and HE can see your web server port, you’re ready to take the Certification Test and place the special file name that HE provides in your /Library/WebServer/Documents directory. If HE is successful in pulling the file, congratulations you’re now a Certified IPv6 Enthusiast !
Make sure to take the Enthusiast Technical Test under Additional Tests in the left navigation.
Administrator
The IPv6 Administrator not only runs a valid IPv6 addressed web site, but also a valid IPv6 addressed mail server. For this certification, you’re going to have to configure a mail server that resolves via DNS, can be connected to over IPv6, and will receive email. Apple OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) includes a Postfix mail server, which I’ll walk you through configuring in the next article; along with the other Certification levels.
Update – 20110228
Sam Bowne (@sambowne) has created a similar list of instructions for Microsoft Windows users, you can get those here.
