IPv6 for businesses
Start by testing whether your office already has IPv6, then test your own services: do your website, email and name servers have AAAA records in DNS?
1. Set requirements for your provider
Ask your internet service provider about IPv6 on the connection you already have. An acceptable answer for a business includes:
- a static prefix that doesn't change, normally a /48
- IPv6 alongside IPv4 (dual stack) on the same connection
- the same availability and support as for IPv4
If you're on an open access network with a communications operator, the same applies as at home: the service provider may depend on the communications operator to pass IPv6 through. Ask for a straight answer on who it comes down to.
Did they say no? Make IPv6 a mandatory requirement the next time the contract is renegotiated.
2. Set requirements when purchasing
Everything you buy should support IPv6: routers, firewalls, switches, Wi-Fi, printers, monitoring and cloud services. RIPE has a ready-made list of requirements to start from, RIPE-772. Whatever you buy without support today will stand in the way for years to come.
3. Decide which addresses you need
- Provider addresses (PA). The simplest option. The downside is that you'll have to renumber your network the day you change providers.
- Your own addresses (PI), or your own membership of the RIPE NCC. The addresses are yours and stay with you when you change providers, and you can have several providers at the same time. This requires the addresses to be announced with BGP, either by you or by your provider.
4. Roll it out gradually
You shouldn't turn off IPv4. Run the two side by side and start with IPv6 where it does the most good:
- Your public services. Web, DNS and email. If they're with a web hosting provider, in the cloud or behind a CDN, it's often just a setting.
- The firewall. The same rules should apply to IPv6 as to IPv4: let traffic out, and only let in what belongs to a connection opened from the inside. And don't block ICMPv6 entirely – IPv6 doesn't work without it.
- The office network. Clients already have IPv6 enabled and will start using it as soon as the network offers it.
- Servers and internal systems. As and when they're replaced or rebuilt anyway.
Draw up an address plan before you start. A /48 holds 65,536 networks, so you can make the plan simple and logical rather than stingy.
Do you also have networks that control machinery, ventilation, heating, water or lighting? Read IPv6 in OT and SCADA networks.