Introduction

Internet protocol (IP) address is a numeric address assigned to each device that has access to the internet. This address identifies your device from the rest and also helps in sending and receiving data from devices. IP addresses are of two kinds. IPv4 and IPv6.

IPv4 was the first IP address and gives out above 4 billion internet addresses. But even so, it’s running out of it. And so IPv6 was introduced to fill in the demand for IP addresses. But they do have a few notable differences than just the address space. 

To help you understand exactly that we noted down a few of the key differences that you can keep in mind if you are interested in them. 

If you want to know more about IPv4 and IPv6 and what makes them different from one another, then keep on reading.

Let’s get started. 

What is IPv4?

IPv4 is the first-ever IP address and is still widely used by many people. It was introduced back in the 1980s during the early stages of the internet.  IPv4 uses a 32-bit address scheme that allows it to store 2^32 addresses which are around 4.3 billion addresses. To date, it is considered as the primary Internet Protocol and carries around 94% of Internet traffic. 

Even if 4 billion is a big amount due to the growth of technology and the internet we have a larger number of devices that need an IP address. And unfortunately, we are running out of IPV4. And so IPv6 was created as a replacement. 

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is the most recent version of the internet IP address. It was introduced in 1999 to fill up the need for more internet addresses that couldn’t be met by IPv4. It has a 128-bit address space that allows 340 undecillion unique address space. 

However, even if it was introduced to provide more internet addresses it does have a few more differences from IPv4 than just that. 

Difference between IPv4 and IPv6

Although IPv6 was introduced as a substitute for IPv4 due to the limitation in IP address, IPv6 has a number of differences from IPv4 than just the number of addresses. We noted down a few of the key differences for you down below. 

Security

IPv6 has an Internet Protocol Security (IPSec). It is integrated to provide network-layer security (authentication and encryption). It is included as a mandatory feature in the IPv6 standards.  But using it is not mandatory.

IPv4 also has an Internet Protocol Security (IPSec). However, IPsec in IPv4 is often used for VPNs. Which is terminated at the edge of networks. IPv4 IPsec is not often used to secure end-to-end traffic. That’s due to the wide use of Network Address Translation in IPv4 (NAT44). NAT44 mangles the IPv4 headers and breaks IPsec. 

But in IPv6 this restriction does not exist. Thus using IPsec end-to-end gets more practical.

Configuration

When it comes to configuration, for IPv4 you need to configure a newly installed system before it can communicate with other systems. And in IPv6, a configuration is optional, which allows you to choose, depending on the required functions.

Device compatibility 

IPv4 and IPv6 are not compatible with one other since they are two completely different protocols. 

However, if it comes to devices IPv4 is more compatible with older devices since they were manufactured keeping IPv4 in mind. But IPv6 is highly compatible with next-generation technology such as mobile phones, cloud-enabled technologies, applications, platforms, and more. Between both the protocols, IPv6 is more compatible with mobile networks. 

Gaming

If you are a gamer you should go for IPv6 rather than IPv4. According to Microsoft,if you want to have the best possible Xbox gaming experience, you should use IPv6. Xbox also supports IPv4 but finding an ISP that will give you an IPv6 connection to the internet is hard. If you use IPv6 for your Xbox, you should have better coordination while playing the best multiplayer fps games. Data that you transmit through the internet should be safer and private.

By using IPv6 on your Xbox, you should have less latency when playing multiplayer games, any data that you do transmit over the internet should be safer and more private, and any general connections made by the Xbox should be faster and more responsive.

Expense

When it comes to pricing, it is hard to say which one is more costly than the other. Because it solely depends on your internet provider. But on a general scale between both proxies, IPv6 is cheaper than IPv4. One of the reasons for which is IPv4 is more expensive to set up. 

IPv4 was once widely used everywhere due to the need for the internet for several purposes for different places be it for organizations, home networks, or mobile phones. As a result, it ran out of address space. And so IPv6 technology which has an infinite address capability with advanced features such as auto-configuration and mobility etc was introduced.

In a nutshell, IPv6 would be the common IP address in the future. But shifting from IPv4 to IPv6 could be a bit complicated. If you want to try IPv6 we suggest you use it combinedly with IPV4 as most websites and applications still use IPv4.

Though IPv6 is cheap compared to IPv4, there are tons of proxy sellers who provide cheap ipv4 proxies which you can use for automated SEO tools or other applications. With Google search, you can find tons of IPv4 proxy sellers.

Conclusion

We hope you found this article helpful. We tried our best to provide you with all the relevant information that will help you understand more about IPv4 and IPv6 and the key differences between them.

Thank you for being patient and staying with us till the end.