Internet users often wonder about “how to find my ip address” and “How to test my internet speed” There are a lot of options on the internet to find your IP or check your internet speed. Sometimes, it takes a few seconds to find the information. To understand this process, it is necessary to know the different types of IP addresses available today.

Before looking at the major difference between an IPV4 and an IPV6, we must first know the individual features of each.

IPV4

The internet protocol version 4 is referred to as IPV4. It is one of the most used protocols among all the protocols introduced in 1982. Even with the address space limited to 32-bits, the number of addresses available is over 4 billion and each address is unique as no two websites can share the same address. IPV4 addresses were available until 2011 when all of the available IPV4 addresses were taken.

IPV6

IPV6 refers to the internet protocol version. IPV6 has had its address space increased to 128 bits. One of the purposes of creating this version of the internet protocol was to avoid one of the major issues of the previous versions. This was the problem of people finishing the addresses. Also, previous versions could not sustain the continuous expansion of the internet

The following is the distinction between IPV4 and IPV6:

Size

The IPV4 address length is 32 bits, while the IPV6 address length is 128 bits .

Address Method

When writing the IPV4 address, you write down numeric values. That is, they are made up of numbers. The values are separated by a period (. ), whereas IPV6 is in alphanumeric format. A colon separates the values. It is also good to note that it contains base 16 values.

Head length

The head length of the IPV6 is twice that of the head length of the IPV4 (40:20).

Encryption

The encryption mechanism is one of the IPV6 enhancements. To a very large extent, the data one sends on the IPV6 network is safe. This was not the case with IPV4.

Checksum

A checksum refers to numbers and letters arranged in a sequence to check for errors in the data. This is the mechanism they used in the IPV4 while the IPV6 does not make use of the checksum field.

Classes Available

On the IPV4, there are five different types of IP address classes. These classes run from A to E. In contrast, the number of IP addresses available on IPV6 is infinite.

Configurations

When using IPV4, every new system has to be configured. Communication cannot take place if this is not the case. On the other hand, IPV6 does not need any special settings for communication to occur.

Fragmentation

When one is using IPV4, the routes that one uses to send and forward data handle the fragmentation, whereas the sender handles the IPV6 fragmentation.

Mobility and Interoperability

The architectures used for IPV4 made mobility and interoperability less mobile, while this is not the case with IPV6. Network devices include mobility functions in their designs.

Security

In the design of the IPV4, security was not the main priority. They left each application to handle security. In contrast, IPV6 includes internet protocol security.