# Can I Get Rid of IPv4?

## wswartzendruber

I'm wondering if I can get rid of IPv4 in my kernel.  Can I grab a backwards-compatible IPv6 address on an IPv4 network?

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## NeddySeagoon

wswartzendruber

There is no backwards compatability between IPv4 and IPv6.  There is an IPv6 /96 subnet allocated for IPv4 type addresses but its still IPv6.

If you remove IPV4 support you will cut yourself off from most of the web. Almost nobody uses IPv6 yet.  

The switch to IPv6 needs equipment replacement, server setup changes ...

The lack of backwards comptability is probably one reason why take up and provisioning of IPV6 by ISPs has been so slow.

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## pappy_mcfae

My first thought was, "why would anyone want to do such a thing?" As Neddy says, there's not a lot of IPv6 out there. The main server for my web site is IPv4, and I have no plans to move to it IPv6 any time in the near future. One of my failovers has IPv6, so I don't need it myself.

Cheers,

Pappy

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## chithanh

As the previous posters have noted, IPv4 addresses have a canonical representation in IPv6 address space. If you use a gateway or proxy which translates IPv4 access for you, then it should be possible to have only IPv6 enabled.

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## wswartzendruber

Hmmm...  Looks like a big mess for now.  I'd have to encapsulate IPv6 inside IPv4.  There seems to be no real benefit, except I want to learn this ahead-of-time.  I definitely can't wack IPv4 on my ThinkPad, but I might on my HTPC once I get OpenWRT setup right.

EDIT:  Oh snap!  It looks like AT&T DSL will have IPv6 ready by the end of next year.

EDIT:  Does anyone know of a domain name registrar that supports AAAA records?

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