Hmm..well this one hit me out of leftfield, recently I learned that my ISP is slowly going to be transitiong over to IPv6. Its probably going to be like the DTV thing and be beaten into all our brains before it effects us, but I thought it might be a interesting topic of discuss. First..what is IPv6?
IPv6 has a vastly larger address space than IPv4. This results from the use of a 128-bit address, whereas IPv4 uses only 32 bits. The new address space thus supports 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses. This expansion provides flexibility in allocating addresses and routing traffic and eliminates the primary need for network address translation (NAT), which gained widespread deployment as an effort to alleviate IPv4 address exhaustion.
Summary: The IP is more complex, so there for theirs more possible combinitions of what IP you can have. Think of it like going from a 4 digit password, all letters, to a 16 digit password, letters and numbers. Since theirs more varibles to the IP, theres a bigger pool to draw your IP from, and there for you have more of them.
The Good:
1.More IP's
2.Possible Private IPs, even for your private(LAN) network.
3.NAT becomes mute, since your computers IP is public.
4.Changes some things, leading to possibly a more secure connection overall.
5.It makes playing multiple counsols on the same modem SOOOO much easier. That is..assuming any game consoles are compatible with IPv6
The Bad:
1.No router currently on the general market, with the exception of 3rd party Firmware and a few Apple products, support IPv6.
2. Uncertainty on the execution. How will this effect DHCP and PPPoE markets.
3. Some say a IPv6 address would be able to be traced more specifically to your computer, rather then your ISP.
4.Last, unless D-link releases a firmware update, no more DGL-4500.