Subject: RE: IPv4 - IPv6 translation

From: Brian Zill <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 00:26:39 -0700

Yuval Shaul asks:
> 
> Does anybody know of anything (RFC, implementation, idea etc)
> about converting IPv4 packets to IPv6 packets?

Erik Nordmark and George Tsirtsis have written a couple of handy RFCs on
this topic, see:
RFC 2565, "Stateless IP/ICMP Translation Algorithm"
RFC 2566, "Network Address Translation - Protocol Translation"

We have an implementation of a NAT-PT, orginally by Marc Fiuczynski.  See
http://www.research.microsoft.com/msripv6; it's available from the same
download page as our stack.  It includes the source code if you want to see
how it works.

> This could be usefull for older stations (most currently 
> working windows) that would like to connect to IPv6 only
> servers. (Do such servers exist ?)

There are IPv6 only servers out there (we have one, try
http://ipv6.research.microsoft.com from your IPv6 capable web browser, it
won't answer to IPv4), but I suspect they're mostly just for testing at the
moment.  Most servers are expected to run both IPv6 and IPv4 for at the
least the beginning of the transition period.  I think translators are more
likely to be useful for people who want to run only IPv6 on their own
network (for ease of administration, etc) but still need to talk to the
occasional luddite out in IPv4 land.  But they'll undoubtedly be used both
ways.

--Brian
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