All about IPv6 and how Beaming allocates IPv6 address prefixes

Find out what IP version 6 is and how we allocate IPv6 address prefixes

A brief history of IP addresses.
Several decades ago the internet was built upon 32-bit IP addressing known as IPv4 , which provided just over 4 billion unique IP addresses. Nowadays even with clever techniques such as NAT, PAT and VLSM there are simply not enough IP addresses for every computer, phone or device on the planet to remain connected to the internet. Enter IPv6.

IPv6 is based upon 128-bit addressing and provides a virtually limitless number of unique IP addresses. To put this in context we now have more IP addresses available to allocate globally than there are atoms on the surface of the earth.

To compare that to IPv4:
IPv4 unique addresses (2³²) = 4294967296
IPv6 unique addresses (2¹²⁸) = 340282366920938463463374607431768211456

There are many benefits to IP version 6 that include network performance enhancements, but for most non-technically savvy people the biggest advance is that most modern routers, computers and devices will automatically configure themselves.

Dual stacking and how Beaming will allocate your IPv6 prefix.

Beaming provide a full dual-stack environment whereby customers will have an IPv4 address alongside an IPv6 address on the same device interface. In terms of your own broadband router this would typically look like a single public IPv4 address on the outside internet facing interface with Network Address Translation (NAT) to private (RFC1918) IPv4 addressing on the inside network. An IPv6 Global Unicast  /56 Prefix (in IP version 6 we refer to subnets or IP address ranges as prefixes) would be assigned to the internet facing interface whilst the router would then segment the /56 prefix into a smaller /64 prefix for each internal network. Connected devices such as modern computers and phones running the IPv6 protocol will then negotiate a unique Global Unicast IPv6 address from within their local /64 prefix network.

A real world example Beaming customer IP Version 6 prefix allocation is as follows:

Customers should be aware that although most consumer grade routers offer the facility for filtering IP v6 traffic,  an IP version 6 traffic filter is not a stateful inspection firewall. Therefore extreme care should be taken before simply turning IP version 6 on and as a minimum you should ensure that all downstream devices have an adequate IPv6 firewall configured and active. Of course many people using IPv4 routers also do not use stateful inspection firewalls but have a degree of protection from using NAT.

If you are unsure on how to implement IPv6 then we would recommend that you seek professional advice from your IT support department or IT provider.

How do I request my IPv6 prefix?
Existing broadband customers should contact Beaming support to request their IP version 6 prefix.

What are the Beaming IPv6 DNS server addresses?
Primary DNS = 2a00:1cd8:bea:200::1
Secondary DNS = 2a00:1cd8:bea:200::2

Now that you’ve found out about IP version 6, browse our support blog for more useful articles and advice.