Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Liverpool-based UK ISP Giant has informed ISPreview that they’ve finally managed to deploy native Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) addressing across their broadband network, which is sure to be welcomed by their residential customers that currently use IPv4 addresses via Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT or IP address sharing).
Just for some context. IP addresses help to connect your software and devices with others around the online world – like an ID number for your internet connection. The issue these days is that the existing IPv4 address space has long been exhausted, which makes it difficult to add new connections without compromising by sharing IPs between many users (CGNAT, MAP-T etc.) or spending big to buy additional v4 addresses on the market.
The long-term solution to the above challenge is adoption of IPv6 addresses, which are not directly compatible with IPv4 and so require a fair bit of complex work and investment in order to make both work properly side-by-side (e.g. Dual Stack or other methods). IPv6 has been around for many years now and a lot of ISPs have deployed it, although there are still some big names that have not (e.g. Virgin Media and TalkTalk); perhaps partly because they continue to have spare v4 addresses.