Ready for IPv6? Compare Your Company to its Peers

Posted on March 10, 2011 by pglover

Earlier this year, ZCorum conducted an informal survey* of independent broadband service providers in the U.S. and Canada about their readiness for IPv6. If you’re still wondering about how you’ll adopt IPv6, you’re not alone.

Read on to see how you compare to other independent ISPs:

When do you expect to exhaust your current IPv4 allocation?

  • In the next 3 months: 13%
  • In the next 6 months: 21.7%
  • In the next 12 months: 26%
  • I’m not sure: 39.1%

That’s a scary thought: 39% of the service providers we surveyed don’t know how much longer their current IPv4 allocations will last. If that sounds like you, check out this how-to guide for conserving your existing allocation while you get ready for IPv6.

When do you plan to support IPv6 in your network?

  • In the next 3 months: 13%
  • In the next 6 months: 13%
  • In the next 12 months: 21.7%
  • Already support IPv6: 13%
  • I don’t know when we’ll support IPv6: 34.7%

We’ve all heard the buzz about content providers, such as Google and Comcast, supporting IPv6 and participating in World IPv6 Day. Evidently, independent ISPs are taking a wait-and-see approach because only 21% of our survey respondents plan to support IPv6 in the next 12 months.

If you don’t get the hype about IPv6, check out What’s the Big Deal About IPv6?

What information would be most helpful to you in preparing for IPv6?

  • IPv6 deployment methods: 25.06%
  • How to prepare residential customers for IPv6: 20.03%
  • How to prepare commercial & web hosting customers for IPv6: 15%
  • I don’t know: 30.01%
  • Other: 9.89%

Looks like a case of “we don’t know what we don’t know”, since 30% of the companies we surveyed weren’t even sure what they needed to learn before they could start considering IPv6 adoption.

At least you’ve dipped a toe in the water by coming to ZCorum.com/ipv6 to learn more. So, what questions do you have for us about IPv6? Leave your questions in the comments section below and we’ll answer them in a future post.

* Surveys solicited January 4 – March 10, 2011 via ZCorum.com/ipv6, email and at trade events.

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How to Conserve IPv4 Addresses

Posted on March 1, 2011 by pglover

Earlier this year, we surveyed independent ISPs about their level of readiness for IPv6. Not surprisingly, most weren’t ready to support IPv6.

But, nearly 22% of the companies we surveyed said they expected to exhaust their current IPv4 allocation in the next 6 months.

If you’re in the same boat, the engineers here at ZCorum thought you might want to know how you can conserve the IPv4 space you already have and make it last as long as possible.

Check out the slide deck and free how-to guide below for 5 ways managers and engineers can work together to conserve current allocations:

How to Conserve IPv4 Addresses

View more presentations from ZCorum
How to Conserve IPv4 Addresses while You Plan for IPv6

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IPv6: How will I get there?

Posted on February 10, 2011 by

It’s true that IANA has exhausted its pool of IPv4 addresses and that ARIN expects to run out this fall. But there is no line in the sand that says when we all have to be on IPv6.

IPv6 and IPv4 are expected to co-exist for a long time, but it would be smart to start thinking about your migration plan now. If that scares you silly, you’re not alone. But ZCorum’s IPv6 Readiness Team is here to coach you through it.

Check out this interview with Tim Smith, our resident ARIN expert, to learn what ISPs need to do to request an IPv6 allocation from ARIN. Tim also gives an overview of what you need to do after you get an allocation to prepare your network for IPv6.

Check out this slide show for instructions on requesting an IPv6 allocation, as well as links to important ARIN forms.

View more presentations from ZCorum.
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Download a FREE How-to Guide

Posted on January 4, 2011 by bparlier

How to Conserve IPv4 Addresses While You Plan for IPv6

This easy-to-follow guide offers five ways non-technical managers and network engineers can work together to better use IPv4 addresses before they run out.

You’ll learn what questions to ask your technical staff about your existing IP pools. You’ll also learn about the information and tools that you can provide to help them use your existing addresses more efficiently, since they’ll be in short supply in the coming year.

DOWNLOAD NOW >

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What’s the big deal about IPv6?

Posted on December 14, 2010 by

If you’ve been asking yourself that question, then listen up.

Your network administrators will tell you that IPv6 is the future of the Internet technology and you’ve got to be ready. You’ve probably assumed that any shift in technology will cost a zillion dollars and you don’t really see the business case for IPv6 yet.

ZCorum’s plain-English guidebook will put it in simple, non-technical terms, so download it now to learn:

  • 3 Reasons why you should care about IPv6
  • How to prepare your core network, residential customers and commercial customers for IPv6
  • 3 Ways that you can migrate to IPv6

Download What’s the Big Deal About IPv6: A plain-English guidebook for non-technical managers >

Posted in IPv6 Migration | 1 Comment

ZCorum’s IPv6 Glossary

Posted on December 14, 2010 by

Say what? If you’ve been reading up on IPv6, this glossary might help with the techno-speak.

Still stumped on a term not listed here? Enter the term in the comments section below and we’ll respond with a plain-English explanation (we’ll also add it to this page, so let us know if we’re missing any important or ambiguous terms or acronyms!).

ARIN also offers a good glossary for acronyms >

ARIN

American Registry for Internet Numbers

IANA

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

ICMP

Acronym for Internet Control Message Protocol.

IPv4

Acronym for Internet Protocol version 4. This pool of addresses is almost depleted and will be replaced by IPv6.

IPv6

Acronym for Internet Protocol version 6. IPv6 addresses are 128 bits, making them much longer than IPv4 addresses.

Link-local Address

An IP address that is intended to communication only within a segment of a local network (link). IPv6 requires that link-local addresses be assigned to network interfaces and is used to support SLAAC.

NDP

Acronym for Neighbor Discovery Protocol. NDP works a lot like a nosy neighbor: It sniffs out other nodes on the link, finds other routers, and finds DNS servers, among several other responsibilities.

SLAAC

Sounds like something you do when you don’t really want to work, but it’s actually an acronym for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration. It’s a fancy way to say that IPv6 hosts can configure themselves when connected to an IPv6 network using ICMPv6 router discovery messages.

Subnet

Short for subnetwork. A subnet is a logically visible subdivision of an IP network. Just FYI – Every time you create a subnet, you lose 3 IP addresses. So, if you want to use your remaining IPv4 addresses wisely, don’t set up a whole bunch of subnets. Click here for other ways to conserve your IPv4 allocation.

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ARIN Acronym Glossary

Posted on December 13, 2010 by

Alphabet soup. It’s not just for lunch anymore!

If you need help deciphering all the acronyms related to IPv6 and the Internet in general, check out ARIN’s AG (that’s Acronym Guide).

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