World IPv6 Day

To show our support for IPv6, and as part of our IPv6 migration plan, we have enabled dual stack connectivity on our blog on this occasion of World IPv6 Day. If you view this site over IPv6, you will see a visual indicator confirming access from IPv6:

What’s IPv6?

For those of you who don’t know, IPv6 is the next-generation Internet protocol, which offers a large number of IP addresses, 296 (= 79228162514264337593543950336) times of what IPv4 has to offer. A typical IPv6 address looks like 2001:db8:cafe::1, compared to an IPv4 address 192.168.148.1. IPv4 space is quickly becoming exhausted, necessitating the migration to IPv6. You can read more about IPv6 in its Wikipedia entry or in the free book, The Second Internet. You can use IPv6 tunnels if your ISP does not offer IPv6 connectivity yet. Using http://test-ipv6.com/, you can verify IPv6 connectivity.

Behind the Scenes

This is powered by 2 load-balancers running nginx, and connectivity to IPv6 internet is through IPv6 6in4 tunnels provided by Hurricane Electric Tunnelbroker, as our datacenters have not enabled IPv6 yet.

Plans

This is not the end. Once we have native IPv6 connectivity, we are planning to roll out IPv6 connectivity for all sites on WordPress.com, and maybe all Automattic sites as well. Stay tuned for more IPv6 announcements…


Missing out on the latest WordPress.com developments? Enter your email below to receive future announcements direct to your inbox. An email confirmation will be sent before you will start receiving notifications—please check your spam folder if you don't receive this.

Join 111.6M other subscribers

131 Comments

Comments are closed.

  1. Łowiczanka

    I have no idea what you are talking about.
    Just as long as there is nothing I need to do.
    Hopefully it won’t mess up my blogs.

    Like

  2. tukunyan

    That’s a welcome development. I am anticipative. Keep up the good work!

    Like

  3. Warren Carlson

    I don’t know other people, but personally I am waiting for IPv7.

    Like

  4. samwarren55

    I learned computers the hard way. Supply delivered them to the office, compliments of Uncle Sam, on a Monday with the orders, “Oh, by the way, you guys are publishing Friday’s newspaper on the new computers.” (It didn’t help that the Japanese Kanji key was nest to the shift key)

    Since then (i.e., circa 1986) I’m in favor of most technology developments that make publishing, blogging and computers easier. Now, if you guys would just figure out how to get my computer to make coffee.

    Good Luck On Your Rollout !

    Sam

    Like

  5. sallybr

    I have absolutely no clue what this is all about, but since so many people are happy about it, so am I!

    🙂

    Like

  6. readlover

    This “2001:db8:cafe::1” called IPV6 ? – -*

    Like

  7. Kale

    Moving to the future!

    Like

  8. bongani23

    how on earth cam we run out of numbers. Anyway its all good change n its working well

    Like

  9. sarisaritots

    Thank you for this information. Would IPv6 create billions and billions of address? Opportunities and the world wide web, yeah!

    Like

  10. yantocool

    IPv6 doesn’t work for me yet, I’ll just wait for it to work… Someday…

    Like

  11. jessiethought

    I have no idea what you are talking about, either. What is IPv4… or IPv6? What do they do?

    Like

    • Daryl Koopersmith

      IP stands for “Internet Protocol” and designates how computers are connected to the internet. This is done by assigning an “address” to any device that connects to the internet.

      IPv4 is the current version of the protocol, and is limited at about four billion addresses, which in this context actually a small number—the addresses are running out. IPv6, however, is designed to fix this problem and allows for countless more addresses.

      Like

  12. bundadontworry

    I think I have to learn more about this IPv6
    best regards

    Like

  13. maureenlermer

    Wonderful… this is what we need. Waiting on it, I’m excited.

    Like

  14. ncharuvila

    I’m working among students leading professional organizations. How can I educate my peers on the importance of IPv6?

    Like

  15. Moco Scribe

    I think I understand all this techie stuff : )

    Like

  16. ACW

    Interesting and absolutely necessary! 🙂 Times have changed and we need to upgrade to IPv6……..wonder how long into the future we would be upgrading to another version?

    Like

  17. Fatih

    More secure an more speed…

    Like

  18. Jing Hu

    This is great news. I’m looking forward to it. 🙂

    Like

  19. Aba El Haddi

    It is really nice to see people educating others about such matters. Embrace change!

    Like

Create your new blog or website for free

Get Started