ipv4 vs. IPv6 addresses: the differences
What are the main differences between IPv4 and IPv6, and which is the best between them?
It is known that every device connected to the Internet has its own identity called the IP, which contributes greatly to facilitating transactions and procedures between devices on the network, even when hackers obtain it as if they have obtained an invaluable treasure because they enable them to almost completely penetrate what is really important.
No one ever imagined that there would be a shortage of IP addresses! Upon exposure to this problem, a new protocol appeared to help withstand the tremendous pressure called “IPv4”, which was developed around 1981, and the actual solution came after around 1999 to be called “IPv6”
You may have heard of these terms before and may have dealt with them directly, and you may not have had a chance to familiarize yourself with these protocols yet and you may wonder about the difference between them and which one is better to use, this is what we are about to talk about in the article.
What are IPv4 and IPv6?
Both IPv4 and IPv6 refer to the IP address standards that define how an IP address is allocated and what they can refer to, it is clear that 4 and 6 are the version numbers, there are some basic differences between IPv4 and IPv6 but they represent both IP addresses and the differences on As follows:
IPv4 is the older version of IP addresses to be allocated through IPv6 except that it is the new version that contains new IP addresses for the desktop.
IPv4 contains IP addresses with 32-bit numeric values written in hexadecimal, while IPv6 has 128 bits written in hexadecimal.
What are you using IPv4 or IPv6?
IPv4 allocated all the IP addresses it had to allocate in 2012 and since then there has been a push to upgrade to IPv6, and we are now in 2018, and still a lot of devices that work through the IPv4 protocol! This prompts us to ask the usual question
But how is that this well has not carried out the dimension? If you run out of IPv4 addresses from new addresses, how do you reach all new iPhones and iPads on the Internet?
At present, the routers are the ones who carry out these transactions to keep everything working as it is set. Your router is the device that gets an IP address, and the devices that connect to it get internal or sub-addresses if you like.
The router uses internal IP addresses to make sure your traffic is directed to the correct device, even if you have the latest iPad, the latest Macbook, the best computer out there, or the latest Surface Tablet PC.
You may still use IPv4 until now thanks to dynamic IP distribution through the router. These devices can support IPv6, but the problem is not the hardware but the prevailing infrastructure.
There is also the unfortunate fact that even though all available IP addresses are allocated under IPv4, not all IP addresses are used at this time. Many of them are still unused which means that the transition to IPv6 will be delayed further.
The transition to IPv6 isn’t easy
The need to migrate is real, but switching to IPv6 costs money on all fronts for hardware and software. All companies need to upgrade their infrastructure to support IPv6, from mobile phone companies to computer manufacturers and even routers. Their infrastructure must also be updated because everyone depends on the services provided by Internet service providers and if ISPs upgrade their network to support IPv6 other companies will also have to provide support for their devices.
Since things are still a work in progress, there is nothing that would create an urgent need to add support to IPv6. The standard exists and so is the technology, but there is little to compel ISPs to migrate to the new standard that supports IPv4 for a large number of devices.
IPv6 is the best:
The biggest benefit of using IPv6 is that all devices can connect directly to the Internet, at present devices communicate via the router and do not have their own IP addresses. If you have to specify a device on the network, you will use its MAC address, which causes a bit slow in handling. The capabilities of your router also play a prominent role in the speed of responding to web requests, when the devices can connect directly to the Internet, the browsing will naturally be faster, and the router will be able to work more efficiently.
It is worth noting that the IPv6 protocol is also more secure than its predecessor, because it encrypts the traffic and ensures the integrity of the packet, to work similarly to a VPN, whose role will remain extremely important to hide your activity from your ISP, but even without it, your traffic will be more Safer on IPv6 than on IPv4.
Let’s talk a little about the difference between IPV4 and IPV6 IPV4 is the oldest version that runs from IP addresses, which is an acronym for Internet Protocol Version 4,
meaning Internet Protocol version 4, and it is the most used in exchanging data between different types of networks, its length of 32 bits is divided into four Digits separated by a period () (For those who do not know, the binary system by counting each byte is 8 bits representing each number on 8 bits,
it starts with the number 0, which is represented by 00000000 and ends with the number 255, which is represented by 11111111). The number of numbers can be calculated by raising the number 2 to the power of 32, we find that it is equal to 4,294,967,296, which is approximately 4.3 billion numbers.
IPV6 is an upgrade to IPV4, its length is 128 bits, (it is divided into eight cells separated by two vertical dots (:) and each segment consist of 16 bits represented in hexadecimal, for example, 20A1: 0db8: 34cd: 0012: 0010: 0220: 00A9: 1234)
you can imagine the huge number of devices that can be supported through IPV6, IPV6 also surpasses IPV4 by simplifying the task of the router, we no longer need NAT technology, and it is better in terms of protection and security.