IPv6

I have used the advice given here recently to get my new wireless box 5 to operate wirelessly with my Samsung phone by disabling the 'n' capability of the router, which renders it reliable for wifi with the phone, even though the phone is supposed to be fully 802.11b/g/n.

My question, does doing this downgrade any important aspect of its operation, particularly when it comes to the implementation of IPv6? When I use the link on TBB, link it detects I am using IPv4. I'm guessing this is due to me still using Windows XP and/or o2 having not switched yet.

Edited by rob54 (Fri 08-Jun-12 00:53:23)

Disabling wireless n will not affect anything else.

O2 have not yet released IPv6 firmware, your o2 box is still IPv4 only.

And the BE network which O2 LLU packages run on is not IPv6 able yet and will not be for some time yet

Weren't they building an entire new network for IPv6 ... which has been delayed until next year some time???

Forget what the media says you don't need to worry about IPv6 yet.

I won't change to a new router while still on ADSL2+ as the one I use supports changing the SNR margin, something only a few routers allow. Definitely won't be using the O2 one.

The new network is not specifically for IPv6, but to support a number of different things going forward and fix a number of issues that have been around since the early days of BE

ETA for migrations to the new network to start is currently mid June, but I wholly expect this to slip again as it has done a few times to date - I'd rather they get things right though, so slippage is good in my book

Never mind the media, BE / O2 have plenty of IPv4 addresses to spare - so definitely no need for any concern

What gets me about IPv6 is what commercial site is going to want to be on it! Surely hardly anyone will have access. Or maybe I'm simply ignorant of how IPv4 users transparently arrive at them.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

What gets me about IPv6 is what commercial site is going to want to be on it! Surely hardly anyone will have access. Or maybe I'm simply ignorant of how IPv4 users transparently arrive at them.

When doing a DNS lookup both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are returned. So it doesn't have to be either IPv4 or IPv6 supported, both can be catered for simultaneously.

I wasn't clear enough. Too tired probably.

The point is that new IPv4 addresses are in short supply. Someone setting up a new website may very soon only be able to have IPv6, with no IPv4.

What happens then?

Well if an ISP runs out of IPv4 addresses they can't give them out to customers, but I haven't heard this happen yet. It seems current ISPs have enough in reserve to survive for now. New entrants to the market might struggle to get a decent pool of IPv4 addresses though.

We have to hope that ISPs have got their acts together before this starts to happen to any great extent. IPV4 only internet users will have no access to IPV6 only web sites.