IPv4 is short for Internet Protocol version 4. When you connect a computer to the internet it is assigned a unique IP address. Because there are a limited number of IP addresses, Network Address Translation (NAT) allows a distinction between a private IP address and a public IP address. All your computers on your network are identified by the same public IP address. NAT, which is built into your router, then directs the packet it has received to the appropriate computer on the network.
As there are so many IPv6 addresses available, this eliminates the need for a private vs public IP distinction. IPv6 performs the same function that ipv4 does. However, IPv6 uses a 128 bit address, while IPv4 uses 32 bit addressing system. An IPv6 address is so large in decimal or binary that it is displayed in hexadecimal notation.IPv4 and IPv6 run as parallel networks. Special gateways and protocols are needed for the two technologies to communicate to each other.
The next section probably won’t mean much to you unless you have some networking experience.IPv6 creates addresses that are equivalent to IPv4 address types and other types of addresses that are unique to IPv6. A node can possess multiple IPv6 addresses, each of which has its own unique function. The IPv6 address space allows for multiple levels of subnets and address allocation between the Internet and individual subnets within LANs and local intranets. The increased address space available lets us to allocate not
one but several unique IPv6 addresses to a network entity, with each address being used for
a different purpose.
The IPv6 128-bit address is separated at 16-bit boundaries, and each 16-bit section is converted
to a 4-digit hexadecimal number.
Global unicast IPv6 addresses are the IPv6 equivalent to IPv4 public unicast addresses. To demonstrate
IPv6 address syntax, lets look at the following IPv6 global unicast address:
24f1:0035:0000:0000:03ad:003f:af37:8d62
IPv6 addresses can be simplified by removing the leading zeros within each 16-bit
block. However, each block must have at least a single digit so you will always have at least a 0 in each block. .
The address representation now becomes:
24fa:35:0:0:3ad:3f:af37:8d62
Luckily for us, the transistion to IPv6 is going well and modern routers and operating sytems etc. all support IPv6. These technologies also make use of special translation software to enable communication between IPv4 and IPv6. So in answer to how IPv6 affects computer repair in Sydney. Not much at all.
Nerd out.