Dear Greg, Thanks for your question on this issue and please see my responses inline. On 8/2/11 9:43 AM, Gregory Okoth wrote:
Hi ISOCians, Since IPV6 is the future addressing system, I believe its definitely the way to go. I would have wished to go for the workshop (http://www.afrinic.net/training/registration.htm) but I wont have that opportunity.
The earlier announced AfriNIC IPv6 training was postponed to a later date. According to the published schedule its now set (but not confirmed) for 14 - 15 September. Please see http://www.afrinic.net/training/index.htm The trainings are open and free for those who register to attend. I will forward you the announcement once the meeting is confirmed. Please let me know how else i can be of assistance on this matter.
I have been toying with the idea of having an IPV4 IP address to act as a gateway for a few computers (on Windows 7) on IPv6.
Ok this is possible.
My questions is -Will the switch/gateway have to support IPv6 (I think it should)
Yes there are two options (transition mechanisms) you can use with an IPv4 gateway. 1) 6in4 - bascially have the Gateway create an IPv4 tunnel to a tunnel broker such as Hurricane Electric (www.he.net). 2) NAT64 - Basically where you have the IPv4 gateway servicing traffic to IPv4 networks from IPv6 hosts (using some form of Network Address Translation)
-How do u implement that dual stack?
Dual stack is where all computers on the network have both IPv4 and IPv6 configured. This is the best transition mechanism and recommended for most networks. For instance in your case, you can have all computers on the network setup with both IPv4 addresses in addition to the IPv6 addresses. How it works - by default TCP/IP on most operating system has been defined such that if IPv6 is enabled, it will attempt to request for Internet resources/services on IPv6. If no resources/services are available on IPv6, it defaults to IPv4. I hope this helps. Thanks and regards, Michuki.