test-ipv6.com FAQ

The test is entirely client-side javascript. To determine reachability, a series of ajax requests are made from the web server, using various DNS names that force the use of IPv6 only, or dual stack, or other such scenarios. The pass/fail of such fetches, as well as how long they take, are taken into account.

You're right, there are no AAAA records, intentionally. A percentage of users are unable to browse sites that are dual-stack. If the users can't connect, then they can't be told they have a problem. This is a big problem facing content providers today; of which, I work at one for my $dayjob. As such, the main test page requires IPv4 (either native or translated).

At some point, when the percentage of "broken" users has gone significantly down, I'll consider making test-ipv6.com dual-stack..

If you ask that question, chances are you don't need this site. However, if you really want to, visit http://aaaa.test-ipv6.com with your IPv6-only host.

A percentage of users today have IPv6 enabled, but are either using a public tunnel that is currently giving poor performance; or otherwise have a route that is installed but broken or suboptimal. However, because they have a route at all, in many cases the address selection algorithm of RFC3484 will pick using it, and trying to use this broken route. It can take towards 75+ seconds before the browser gives up!

From the perspective of a user with these conditions, a web site offering both A and AAAA DNS records (ie, "dual stack") will appear to time out; and the user will move on to another site that offers a similar product. This is the quandary content providers have.

They went to http://aaaa.test-ipv6.com .

They do not represent the average web consumer. Visitors to this site are self-selecting. The intent of this site is to not provide stats, but instead to inform the user the level of readiness for the world to move to IPv6 (with or without'em!). As such, stats found here will be completely different from an average content provider.

At this time, I'm most concerned with the user's readiness for a content provider to start offering dual-stack. A user who has working IPv4, and has a disabled IPv6 stack (or enabled, but zero routes), will continue to browse that content provider's site without issues.

From the user's perspective, there is no IPv4, there is no IPv6. There is simply the Internet experience. Generally speaking, if users have to concern themselves between the two, those in the internet industry have failed.

In 2011, I expect both increased IPv6 usage, as well as increased CGN (carrier grade NAT) to be used. At this point I will start adjusting the scores to reflect a much lower score for IPv4 only users. I am actually considering two scores, one for the IPv4 only user, and one for the dual-stack user.

Content providers are gathering metrics of broken vs non-broken users, in an aggregate form. They are not at this time actually giving the user feedback as to the user's current state. Those metrics will principally drive the business decision of when to start publishing sites over IPv6, versus remaining IPv4 only. IPv4 only for some content sites really is an option; it has a handful of downsides, but the expectation is that everyone will always be able to reach IPv4, in some fashion.

This site, on the other hand, is intended to help the user understand their current state, and what that state possibly means to them.

For ipv4/ipv6/dual stack, use one of these:

telnet a.test-ipv6.com 79 for ipv4
telnet aaaa.test-ipv6.com 79 for ipv6
telnet ds.test-ipv6.com 79 for either

Note you _may_ need to specify other options to your telnet command, depending on your operating system. On my mac, for example, I need to use "telnet -6".

Yes, I do. Thank you! Note that I can only follow up with you if you do leave contact information. While I am still grateful for feedback without contact information, I will be unable to reply with any answers if you asked them.

Note that with the increase in traffic, due to the World IPv6 Day press release, it is possible that I'll reply with a template message. Please don't take this personally; I did read your message, and double checked your results. Feel free to reply if something's unclear.

I would prefer you use the form, as it gives details of your connectivity, and bypasses any mail delays (including the graylisting on my side). That said, you are welcome to directly email or jabber jfesler@test-ipv6.com. On FreeNode, I'm simply "jfesler".

Yes. See source page for details.

See the todo list.