IPv6 HELP!!!!!!!!

Hi To all-
I have brought up this topic before but am bringing it up again since I am going for my core hardware test for the third freaking time now. I am kinda in a position where I have to pass well I would hope after the 3rd time I would lol but I am up for a promotion to systems administrator in may so passing now would make me a little more secure about the pay not the postion per say .I practically have it already but enough blobering I have been using the examcram 2 book religiously to study as long with the practice tests on this site ( they are great) but in my readings on the network section it is noted that the new version IPv6 will NOT be asked on the exam and to use the reference only as "supplemental information" but I was asked it on the test. I did get the answer wrong but I guess I am a bit confused as why they would ask that type of question on the exam but tell you not to study for it but use it as supplemental information only. Can anyone please help me understand?

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Comments

Ricka182

If you got a question on IPv6, it was more than likely a Beta question, and was NOT scored either way. Comptia, and M$ use these Beta questions for "future reference". You don't need to understand IPv6 for A+, but you should be familiar with it anyway, it is the future.

ra13

thanks a bunch, I did forget about those beta questions on the tests I will keep that in mind. I know a little more about ipv6 now but haven't heard anything good yet.I hear in europe they are having issues with getting addresses. but again thak you i will look out for those beta questions.

keatron

Basically this question could take many pages and many days to answer. I'll give a short explanation.

The first and most obvious difference is that IPv6 source and destination addresses are 128 bits (which is 16 bytes) in length. IPv4 addresses are 32 bits (4 bytes) in length. That's a mammoth 3.4x10 to the 38th power number of possible combinations. Some of the v6 experts I've spoken with claims this will eliminate the need for NAT, but we'll see how that turns out

IPv6 supports both stateful address configuration, such as address configuration in the presence of a DHCP server, and stateless address configuration (address configuration in the absence of a DHCP server). With stateless address configuration, hosts on a link automatically configure themselves with IPv6 addresses for the link (called link-local addresses) and with addresses derived from prefixes advertised by local routers. Even in the absence of a router, hosts on the same link can automatically configure themselves with link-local addresses and communicate without manual configuration yes guys you read right. DHCP will become optional!!!!!!!!! Autoconfiguration has basically not been available in any versions previous to v6. without DHCP (APIPA doesn't count)

Support for IPSec is an IPv6 protocol suite requirement. This is a God-send to me and probably most others in this forum who deal heavily with security.

The Neighbor Discovery protocol for IPv6 is a series of Internet Control Message Protocol for IPv6 (ICMPv6) messages that manage the interaction of neighboring nodes (nodes on the same link). Neighbor Discovery replaces the broadcast-based Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), ICMPv4 Router Discovery, and ICMPv4 Redirect messages with efficient multicast and unicast Neighbor Discovery messages. Again this is a God-send, ARP broadcasts have helped me creep into more than a few clients networks while evaluating security.

This is definantly more than you need to know about IPv6 for A+, but it covers all the basic differences.

Plantwiz

First, Keatron - thank you for the generous summary.

ra13 wrote:

........... I know a little more about ipv6 now but haven't heard anything good yet.I hear in europe they are having issues with getting addresses. but again thak you i will look out for those beta questions.

ra13, I am a little puzzled with this response. Haven't heard anything good??

If you are taking the exam for the third time, I would strongly suggest you download the objectives for the exam from Comptia and review them before sitting for the exam.

What is even more surprising (and there is no way to make this sound 'nice' except to not say it.....but well......) is that you may be a system administrator without the ability to show an understanding for hardware (i.e...completetion of the A+ exam).

Perhaps a change of study material if you have limited experience working with hardware. Exam Cram's material is just that.....a cram, like a review for people who have a working knowledge of the components and to metion/review items that an exam candidate may have once worked with and now does not.

If you have specific questions about any of the objectives post them in the forums and we will do our best to help you get a better understanding.

Here is the thread from March http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7215
to further review IPv6 if Keatron answer doesn't help. At this point, I would not invest a lot of time on that subject but instead focus on all the objectives from Comptia and any of those that do not make sense.

Best of Luck

ra13

Thank you all for your responses. I now have a better understanding of IPV6 now thanks. Plantwiz I agree with you as how can I have the systems administrator title but have no harware experience. The thing is that I have been in this field for only about 2 years now and have had np prior experience repairing pc's. I landed the job I am at now right out of school and do mostly software here. I did minor hardware stuff when I was a student. So this is the reason I am having trouble with the hardware part. I have not been a tech I got in my position as an IT assistant and by my attitude and strive I have recently been offered this position. So to all I think attitude has alot to do with where you would like to be in this field and how much you want to learn. There is alot to learn and noone to stop you from learning as much as you want. I would though like some hints on what I should be doing to prepare for this test again. I am going this Friday 4/29. Once again thanks everyone for your help.

garv221

keatron- Nice post. All I have heard about IPv6 is just the bits & length. That is heaven-sent for stateless networks. What about network with multiple VLANS when you must specify address leases?

keatron

Again, I'll try to be breif, however this is a complex question.

Basically the precise method by which IPv6 would be "injected" into an existing IPv4 network is deployment specific. For example, perhaps a site has an IPv4-only router, connected to an Ethernet switch that supports VLANs, and a number of hosts connected to that VLAN. Let's further assume the site has a dozen of these setups which it wishes to IPv6-enable immediately. This could be done by upgrading the twelve routers to support IPv6, and turning IPv6 on on those routers.However, this may not be practical for various reasons. The simplest approach would be to connect an IPv6 router with one interface to an ethernet switch, and connect that switch to other switches, and then use VLAN tags between the switches and the IPv6 router to "reach" all the IPv4-only subnets from the IPv6 router. Thus the general principle is that the IPv6 router device (e.g. performing IPv6 Router Advertisements in the case of stateless autoconfiguration) is connected to the target link through the use of VLAN capable Layer 2 equipment. In a typical scenario where connectivity is to be offered to a number of existing IPv6 internal subnets, one IPv6 router could be deployed, with both an external interface and one or more internal interfaces.The external interface connects to the wider IPv6 internet, and may be dual-stack if some tunnel mechanism is used for external connectivity, or IPv6-only if a native external connection is available. The internal interface or interfaces can be connected directly to a VLAN-capable switch. It is then possible to write VLAN tags on the packets sent from the internal router interface based on the target IPv6 link prefix. The VLAN-tagged traffic is then transported across the internal VLAN-capable site infrastructure to the target IPv6 links (which may be dispersed widely across the site network). Where the IPv6 router is unable to VLAN-tag the packets, a protocol-based VLAN can be created on the VLAN-capable device connected to the IPv6 router, causing IPv6 traffic to be tagged and then redistributed on congruent IPv4 subnet links that lie in the same VLAN. Garv221, how are your VLANs implemented? Some prefer to apply on VLAN per router interface, while others prefer (or are forced) to have collasped VLANs on a single interface. So this will play a big part in how IPv6 will handle your specific VLANs. The specifics of these two different implementations would take at least a page each, and I don't want to be guilty of hogging all of the forum storage

garv221 basically, IPv6 is not an all or nothing implementation. Address leases and lease times will not be problem. I'll see if I can find time to put together a diagram and post it.