February 29^th is a day that only comes around once every four years, so how are you planning to take advantage of the extra day this Leap Year permits?

One idea is to use the day to advance your IPv6 deployment. How, you ask? We’ve pulled together a list of a few fun ideas that can help you spend your time taking additional steps toward IPv6 adoption.

Introduce yourself to IPv6. To those of you who are just now becoming familiar with IPv4 depletion and IPv6 adoption, 6DISS has a great web tutorial that outlines everything you need to know.

Take a free IPv6 certification test. Do you want to certify your ability to configure IPv6 and validate your IPv6 server’s configuration? This free tool from Hurricane Electric will help you do just that.

Learn the fundamentals of deploying IPv6. Want to know about the features and benefits of IPv6? The addressing structure? Basic configurations? My IPv6 tutor, a free video-based self-trainer, is a great place to start.

Read a case study. This interesting use case from the University of Pennsylvania explores how the university not only laid the groundwork for, but also deployed a wide-scale effort and ongoing support for IPv6 adoption.

Enable your DNS for IPv6. It is best to phase in the use of IPv6 records in your DNS so that you can deal with the various issues that arise step by step. The process isn’t too complex, but there are a variety of things you should consider. Consult our IPv6 Wiki’s DNS and Naming Issues Page to learn about best practices for enabling your DNS for IPV6.

Read about IPv6 and enterprise deployment. Because IPv4 and IPv6 will coexist for the foreseeable future, companies will need to maintain business continuity for all IPv4 and IPv6 customers after IPv4 depletion. This working group paper defines a small set of basic enterprise scenarios and includes pertinent questions to allow enterprise administrators to further refine their deployment scenarios.

Take a deeper dive into IPv6 security. Helpful tutorials from 6deploy explore several issues like privacy extensions, ND threats, IPv4 vs. IPv6 Threat Analysis and firewalling IPv6. Security issues from transition and coexistence point of view are also provided.

Share your IPv6 knowledge with others.  Contribute to ARIN’s IPv6 Wiki, and be part of the community. Take part in developing a great resource for everyone interested in learning more about IPv6.  Did you know most of the links shared in this post came from our IPv6 Wiki’s Educating Yourself about IPv6 Page or IPv6 Presentations and Documents Page?  The only thing missing on our IPv6 Wiki is your IPv6 deployment experience, so add it today.

How do you plan to spend your extra day this year? Will you be “leaping” toward IPv6?

Will you be in the Brooklyn, NY or Chicago, IL area in March?  If so, join us for the ARIN on the Road closest to you.

On Tuesday, 6 March 2012, we will be heading to the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, New York for ARIN on the Road Brooklyn.  

On Thursday, 22 March 2012, we will be heading to the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois for ARIN on the Road Chicago.

Why should you attend?

First things first, registration is FREE.  There is no cost to attend ARIN on the Road.  We want you to join us so you can learn more about who ARIN is and how we operate.  We are providing these ARIN on the Road events as a service to you.  Come learn and ask questions while networking with new and old friends.

Next, we have an awesome line up of topics for the day.  We’ll be covering subjects like ARIN’s technical services, the status of IPv6 adoption, current ARIN policy developments, and updates about ARIN and the RIR system. Check out our full itinerary.  We’ll even give you the opportunity to speak one-on-one with an ARIN staff member about requesting and managing Internet number resources during an optional Ask ARIN session at the end of the day.

Take advantage of this interactive event where ARIN staff will seek to answer all your questions. So what are you waiting for? Register now! Invite your friends and co-workers too.  Attending ARIN on the Road is a great first step to learn how you can help steer the future of the Internet.  See you in Brooklyn or Chicago!

IPv6 has many advantages over its counterpart, IPv4.  We’re going to share a few of things we love the most about IPv6 and welcome you to share your favorite aspects of IPv6 in the comments as well.

IPv6 is vast.  There are 340,282,366, 920,938,463,463,374, 607,431,768,211,456 addresses in this 128 bit numbering scheme.

IPv6 has many addresses available for everyone who needs them.  Conversely, the global free pool of IPv4 reached depletion last February and regional pools are either at or nearing depletion as well.

IPv6 helps support the underlying elements of the Internet routing infrastructure.  Contiguous blocks of IP address space are necessary for activities like building out new large networks and adding new customers to existing networks without causing additional burden on the Internet routing infrastructure. IPv6 is able to provide plenty of these larger contiguous address space blocks.

IPv6 networks preserve true end-to-end connectivity.  IPv6 helps to avoid adding another layer of address translation that could create network inefficiencies, scalability issues, or other potential problems

IPv6 makes network configuration easier.  IPv6 networks have address auto-configuration built into them.  Larger networks especially are more easily managed through this simplified network configuration.

IPv6 should meet the world’s IP addressing needs far into the foreseeable future.  We think IPv6 is going to be around for a looooong time.

With IPv6, we’re all in it together.  IPv6 was deployed in 1999, and since then, we’ve all had a lot to learn.  Today, there are many resources available to help you to begin your IPv6 transition.  Check out our IPv6 Info Center and IPv6 Wiki to get started.

Do you love IPv6 too?  Tell us why below!

On the second Friday of every month for the next six months, we plan to embark on an exploration of what lies beneath the surface of the Internet. Today, we will start off by looking at the mysterious Internet Protocol (IP) address—what is it exactly, and how many different types of IP addresses are there?

An IP address is a number that uniquely identifies a device on a computer network and, using transport protocols, moves information on the Internet. Every device with an Internet connection, from cell phones and computers, to toasters and cars, must have a unique IP address, which enables communication between these devices.

There are two well-known standard types of IP addresses that are used today:

IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) is the first widely used standard defining how the Internet and its connected devices operate and communicate with one another. With 4.3 billion IP addresses, it is simply no longer enough to support the growth of the global commercial Internet. The world is running out of IPv4 addresses, which means Internet stakeholders need to adopt a new kind of IP address.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is a more robust numbering system than IPv4 that allows for far more IP addresses. About 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IP addresses to be exact. Many organizations around the world are now deploying IPv6 in an effort to keep up with the growth of the Internet. For an in-depth look at the technical aspects of IPv6, take a look at this presentation.

But wait, IPv4 to IPv6?  What ever happened to IPv5? There never was an official IPv5 protocol. In the late 1970’s, a protocol named ST (The Internet Stream Protocol) was created for the experimental transmission of voice, video, and distributed simulation. It was abandoned before it could become an official standard.  IPv6 however, was developed by the IETF and deployed in 1999 as the official standard protocol to meet the needs of a rapidly growing Internet.  At the time it was also known as IP Next Generation or IPng.  Today, we just call it IPv6.

If you want to investigate a little deeper into IP addresses, feel free to check out ARIN’s knowledge page, a one-stop shop for all your Internet number resources needs. Additionally, for some more in depth coverage of IPv6, be sure to visit the ARIN IPv6 wiki

Now that you know the different types of IP addresses, we bet you’re wondering where all of the IPv4 addresses have gone, don’t forget to tune in next month to learn more!

Did you hear?  Registration for ARIN XXIX has opened!  Our first ARIN Public Policy and Members Meeting of 2012 will take place on the 22^nd through 25^th of April at the Four Seasons Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia. To register and find out more information visit the ARIN XXIX page.

Not sure if you want to attend?  Watch our meeting movie to help make up your mind.  Sure you want to attend?  Watch our meeting movie anyway to get a taste for what to expect.  Either way watch our new meeting movie (after you’ve read our warnings below)!

Caution:

• Movie will not cause drowsiness.
• Do not operate heavy machinery while watching movies. Bad idea.
• May cause a sudden urge to register for ARIN XXIX directly after watching.

Now what are you waiting for?  Watch the meeting movie and then register for ARIN XXIX.

Excitement is in the air, crowds are cheering and final bets are being placed on the sidelines. It’s game day. On one side of the field we have IPv4 and on the other, IPv6.

The first quarter kicks off with IPv4 holding strong , with almost all of its 4.3 billion IP addresses in play, how long can it continue to hold the field? The cracks in the defense show early thanks to continued interference from connected devices like smartphones and tablets, IPv4 shows signs of tiring under the pressure.

Just after halftime, the Asia-Pacific region reaches full depletion of IPv4 addresses, and the tide has clearly turned.  Home field advantage is not going to be enough to save IPv4’s record given this major shift in the way the Internet community plays the game. IPv6 starts to shake off the rookie jitters as it prepares to take the lead.

Stealing a page from the IPv4 playbook, IPv6 is ready to offer IP addresses for everyone who needs them. The strategy can work for IPv6 because it offers a lot more IP addresses than IPv4. This exponentially larger pool of IP addresses is the key to the future growth of the Internet and has changed the game forever.

So how does this game end? As we get closer and closer to complete global IPv4 depletion, will IPv6 be victorious? It will if more and more people take the plunge and deploy IPv6 on their networks. That’s why we’re so devoted to spreading the word about IPv6, and we encourage you to do so too.

However, depletion won’t mean it is lights out for IPv4.  Because IPv6 is not backwards compatible with IPv4, both protocols will be supported simultaneously for many years.

A number of organizations have already deployed or made plans to deploy IPv6. As IPv6 fans, this is pretty exciting news and we expect to see increase adoption rates in 2012.

Gooooo IPv6!

As usual, this year looks like it’s going to be a busy one for TeamARIN.  We’re going to be on the road spreading the word about IPv6 all over our region.  We’d love to have you join us whereever we might be.  In 2012 you’ll see us at tradeshows, conferences, meetings, and special events.  Here’s a small sampling of what the year holds for us.

ARIN Public Policy and Members Meetings:

ARIN on the Road Events:

Tradeshows:

Speaking Opportunities:

And this is only a few of the events we’ll be attending or hosting in 2012! There is much more in store, and new opportunities get added to our calendar all the time. We hope to see you out and about!

ARIN took two hundred nine thousand, four hundred forty eight steps toward IPv6 last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  How do we know we took 209,448 steps toward IPv6?  Because we were at the show spreading the word about the importance of transitioning to IPv6, and we just happened to wear pedometers.  If you were at the show, maybe we gave you one.  How many steps did you take around the convention center?  Hopefully you were reminded of the discussions we had with you about how now is the time to adopt IPv6.

Among several interviews and live broadcasts, our president and CEO, John Curran was talking to the press about the importance of IPv6 too.  Watch his interview with Hak5/Revision3:  Are We Running Out of IP Addresses? The American Registry of Internet Numbers at CES 2012

Feel free read up on a couple news articles about IPv6 from the show:

CES: Getting Gadgets IPv6-Ready

IPv6 Promotional Push Will Shift Gears at CES

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t ask you, what was the coolest IPv6-enabled device you saw?

With 2012 just around the corner, we thought it’d be fun to share ARIN’s New Year’s resolution with you, along with a refresher about what ARIN does all year round.  We’re ready for the New Year and hope you are too!

ARIN’s New Year’s Resolution

ARIN is continually committed to stewardship in the management of Internet Number Resources, including IPv4, IPv6, and Autonomous System numbers for our region.  Our region includes Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States.

We shall continue to allocate Internet Protocol resources according to community-based policy, including IPv4 addresses as long as we have them and IPv6 addresses.

We shall continue to facilitate the advancement of the Internet through information and educational outreach, especially highlighting the need for IPv6 adoption.

We shall continue to look for ways to engage our community and gain your participation in the important work you support us in accomplishing.

As a nonprofit, membership organization, we will remain dedicated to serving the Internet community in three key areas—registration services, organization services, and policy development services.

Registration Services

ARIN shall continue to provide the technical coordination and management of Internet number resources. Including services such as:

• IP address space allocation, transfer, and record maintenance
• ASN allocation, transfer, and record maintenance
• Directories
• Registration transaction information (WHOIS) and (WhoWas)
• Routing information (Internet Routing Registry)
• DNS (Reverse)

Organization Services

ARIN shall continue to interact with ARIN members and stakeholders in the following ways:

• Elections in the fall—ARIN is governed by an executive board elected by its membership
• Members Meetings –we’ll be in Vancouver, BC, Canada and Dallas, TX, USA in 2012
• Publication and dissemination of information
• Participation in the global Internet community
• Education and outreach

Policy Development Services

ARIN shall continue to facilitate the development of consensus-based policy for the technical coordination and management of Internet number resources in the ARIN region in the following ways:

• Maintaining discussion email lists
• Conducting Public Policy Meetings—ARIN XXIX and ARIN XXX in 2012.
• Publishing policy documents

Time is running out on 2011, and we sincerely hope that the 12 Days of IPv6 have inspired you to move forward with your own IPv6 transitions. That’s why we’ve pulled together resources to help you understand how to request IPv6 addresses from ARIN. And we’re not the only ones who can help explain the process.

In his article for Network World entitled, “How to Get IPv6 Addresses From ARIN,” Ed Horley tackles the somewhat difficult task of explaining how our IPv6 assignment policies are much different from our IPv4 assignment policies.

If you have an existing ASN and BGP multi-homed network, you automatically qualify for a /48 delegation from ARIN where a /48 is considered a single “site.” The number of sites your organization has will determine how much IPv6 address space you are allocated.

Horley lists our address assignment breakdown based on the number of sites your organization has or will have within the next 12 months. To see how that works refer to this policy: “Direct assignments from ARIN to end-user organizations.” We hope you can use this policy to your advantage as you explore IPv6 adoption in 2012.

All in all, 2011 was a great year for IPv6. Thank you for joining us on this 12-day journey as we looked back on such a successful year. We’d like to end this festive blog series with one simple wish: that you enjoy the holiday season and have a happy New Year!

With 2011 drawing to a close, members of the Internet community are trying to determine the current state of IPv6 adoption and are hoping for an inkling of what 2012 will bring. To get some answers, we can refer to a survey supported by the Number Resource Organization (NRO) and conducted by GNKS Consult, an independent organization. The Global IPv6 Deployment Monitoring Survey 2011 had over 1,600 international respondents, more than half of which were service providers.

Liam Eagle broke down the survey results in an article for Web Host Industry Review entitled “Survey Points to Increased IPv6 Adoption by Service Providers in 2012.” It was encouraging to see that more than 70% of respondents said they plan to deploy IPv6 in the coming year. Among ISPs in particular, the results show growth in deployment as well as in the desire to promote IPv6 to customers.

Not only did Eagle note the progress being made by ISPs, he also harkened back to John Curran’s presentation, “Ready or not, IPv6 is Here,” at HostingCon earlier this year. And like John always says, hosting providers should adopt IPv6 now rather than later so that consumers do not experience any potential operability issues later.

The good news is it seems that the majority of participants agreed. The survey results show many organizations are committed to adopting IPv6—and soon. IPv6 will definitely be on the list of New Year’s Resolutions for many ISPs and other organizations in 2012.

Tomorrow marks the last post in The 12 Days of IPv6 series. Tune in for Day 12 when we show you how to get IPv6 addresses from none other than yours truly—ARIN!

People often examine IPv6 adoption in ISPs, telecoms, and other industry organizations, but forget to ask, what are governments doing to prepare for the next generation Internet? Today we are going to take a look at an article that asks that question of one government in the ARIN region. In an article for Government Technology entitled, “Only 9 Federal Websites Found to be IPv6 Compliant,” Brian Heaton investigates an unofficial report claiming only nine of 1,761 federal Web domains in the United States meet the IPv6 address standard.

Our CEO, John Curran, warned Heaton that this report was not necessarily indicative of the US government’s attitude toward or progress made regarding IPv6. What the unofficial report doesn’t take into consideration is the steps agencies are already taking to make the transition.

In September 2010, former US Federal CIO Vivek Kundra mandated all government agencies must upgrade their public-facing servers and services to IPv6 by September 2012 and then upgrade internal applications to IPv6 by September 2014. These federal mandates have challenged agencies to make the move to IPv6, and federal IT managers are working toward a clean transition that can be rolled out across their entire agency.  That said, we will only truly know the status of IPv6 migration in the US government come next September’s deadline.

How different is the situation in the private sector? Tune in next Monday for Day 11 of The 12 Days of IPv6 when we dissect survey results that suggest increased IPv6 adoption by service providers and others in 2012.

In an article for Network World entitled “Most IT pros say their websites, networks will support IPv6 by 2013” Carolyn Duffy Marsan highlights a survey the publication conducted in July that provided a lot of insight about industry attitudes toward IPv6. Network World surveyed more than 200 IT professionals, and the following statistics really stood out to us.

IPv6 migration is further along than expected. More than 70% of IT departments surveyed plan to upgrade their websites to support IPv6 within the following 24 months. While only 16% of respondents reported that all of their software and hardware currently supports IPv6, 46% said that “most” of it does.

Internal networks are the first priority after public-facing websites. 82% of respondents said they would eventually adopt IPv6 for their public-facing websites and 72% of respondents said their companies would eventually adopt IPv6 for their corporate network.

Organizations are still concerned about transitioning. Survey respondents indicated several potential stumbling blocks, including a lack of available commercial service from carriers and network hardware and software products that lack feature-parity between IPv6 and IPv4.

IT professionals want to be part of the migration process. 90% of respondents said they would be directly responsible or have influence over some aspect of their company’s IPv6 deployment.

Check back with us tomorrow for our final post of the week. In Day 10 of The 12 Days of IPv6 we take a look at how one government feels about IPv6.

(Please excuse the corny heading – we are getting in the holiday spirit!)

Once the dust settled from the much-hyped World IPv6 Day, Internet stakeholders everywhere let out a huge sigh of relief.  The 24-hour IPv6 testing period turned out to be a success.

More than 1,000 participants joined forces on June 8 to see how far we have come in preparation for an IPv6 transition that will undoubtedly take years to complete. CNET’s Stephen Shankland reflects on World IPv6 Day in his article “IPv6: Come On In, The Water’s Fine.”

World IPv6 Day was nothing but successful. Out of all participants, under a tenth of a percent had network configuration problems that broke access to IPv6 sites on the Internet. The test was so successful, in fact, it prompted major players like YouTube, Facebook, Sprint and Mozilla to leave their IPv6 services on for quite some time following the event.

As our CEO, John Curran, noted, “World IPv6 Day turned out to be a non-event—which is a good thing.” The test went off without a hitch, and any discrepancy served as a learning experience for those involved. We were happy to see that the positive results of the test served as an uplifting incentive for organizations to migrate to IPv6, as opposed to the more doom-and-gloom “the sky is falling” message behind IPv4 exhaustion.

Check back with us tomorrow for Day 9 of The 12 Days of IPv6 when we discuss how you can utilize this uplifting message to convince your organization to make the move to IPv6.

Last May the Internet community was buzzing about World IPv6 Day. While many individuals remained optimistic about the upcoming 24-hour IPv6 trial period, they couldn’t help but wonder: What would the world look like if the Internet was still 99% based on IPv4 five years down the road? Would the Internet simply shut down? Would it cause an IPocalypse?

Carolyn Duffy Marsan took on these tough questions in her Network World article, “What if IPv6 Simply Fails to Catch On? Ultimately, she determined three major byproducts of a failed migration to IPv6.

Increased Complexity of Internet Infrastructure–Multiple layers of network address translation (NAT) devices would be required to share limited IPv4 addresses among a rapidly growing base of users and devices in contrast to the well thought-out architecture that is IPv6.

Increased Costs–Attempting to hang onto an IPv4 Internet would cause us to see workarounds, hacks and other Internet problems which would have significant cost impacts.

Stifled Innovation–The Internet would become increasingly fragile which would have a negative effect on potential development of application or service innovation. Moreover, existing companies would hold all existing address space, closing out Internet access to innovative startups.

Our CEO, John Curran, notes that five years from now, IPv6 may still be a smaller amount of Internet traffic than IPv4. However, there is no way to stretch four billion addresses to meet the projected 50 billion address need, and therein lies the critical reason for a complete IPv6 migration.

Please join us tomorrow for Day 8 of The 12 Days of IPv6, as we review the success of World IPv6 Day.