How-To: Disable IPV6 to speed up Internet.

[SlowJet]

sorry for the silly question (but man page isn't so clear to me)
why there's ipv6 if you should disable?

Why do cars go 120 M. P. H. if you shouldn't speed?

IPV6 is part of Inernet II.
It allows so many ip addresses that every man and woamn that ever lived on the planet to have an ip along with their ipod, toaster oven, car, and wallet.

But .... it's not ready for the avgerge joe's home rig and will take many years to get rid of IVP4.

IPV6 is mainly used for private networks, cluster communication, and is concitered expermental.


The main reason it needs to be disabled in the home is that a router (almost required now by ISP's) doesn't understand it and it tunnels trough IPV4, but also goes into a long time out and slows down the internet.

SJ
SJ

[Saiboogu]

sorry for the silly question (but man page isn't so clear to me)
why there's ipv6 if you should disable?

For future support. IPv4 is running out of address space, so we must transition to IPv6 at some point soon. IPv6 also offers other benefits that I'm not immediately aware of ... Just the latest and greatest networking gimick, yada yada But support isn't widespread yet, so mostly its just sitting idle on your system. Disabling it removes some bloat and streamlines your networking for the time being, especially (in my experience) within Firefox.

Try typing about:config in your Firefox address bar. Type ipv6 in the "Filter:" box, find the option that says "network.dns.disableIPv6". If it reads "False" right click and toggle it to True. Should give you a slight speedup in your browsing.

EDIT: As usual, I sat on my reply too long. I even refreshed the initial page before I posted to make sure I didn't do this .. Pagebreak fooled me. But, I like SJ's answer better anyway ....

Why do cars go 120 M. P. H. if you shouldn't speed?

[Yagisan]

But .... it's not ready for the avgerge joe's home rig and will take many years to get rid of IVP4.

IPV6 is mainly used for private networks, cluster communication, and is concitered expermental.

And small out of the way places, such as Japan. I think you'll find it is not considered experimental, and deployed more widely then you think.

The main reason it needs to be disabled in the home is that a router (almost required now by ISP's) doesn't understand it and it tunnels trough IPV4, but also goes into a long time out and slows down the internet.

Not at all. I could use the same excuse with IPX and it would be just as untrue. Your IPv4 only router (when not used as a bridge) can't understand IPv6 packets, and so it silently drops them.

Now firefox seems to prefer trying with the IPv6 address first, so it gets your system to try that. After a long timeout, because your router/isp doesn't support IPv6, firefox then trys IPv4, and suddenly everything works fine.

For future support. IPv4 is running out of address space, so we must transition to IPv6 at some point soon. IPv6 also offers other benefits that I'm not immediately aware of ... Just the latest and greatest networking gimick, yada yada But support isn't widespread yet, so mostly its just sitting idle on your system. Disabling it removes some bloat and streamlines your networking for the time being, especially (in my experience) within Firefox.

And yet having it enabled causes no issues for any other application - see the pattern anyone ?

Try typing about:config in your Firefox address bar. Type ipv6 in the "Filter:" box, find the option that says "network.dns.disableIPv6". If it reads "False" right click and toggle it to True. Should give you a slight speedup in your browsing.

And that is the best workaround for "disabling" IPv6 in the broken application, not systemwide. Those of you affected by this, file bugs on firefox, otherwise you'll be doing this evrytime you upgrade you system.

[chien]

ok, i did it, but I don't want to reboot my system. Is there any way to activate it without rebooting? come on guys, we are on linux.

I did ifdown and ifup but "ip a | grep inet6" still shows some lines.

[SlowJet]

Yagisan,

You may be perfectly correct but on the number of posts on site taking your view vs. the router being stupid is running about 3 to 1 against you.

And it doesnt matter ..
Globally off takes care of all and any futrue programs trying to use IPV6.

I am not in Japan.
I don't have any IPV6 addresses nor do I connect to any.
And there are other slow downs occuring, not just the browswer and mail.

So go round up the unusal suspects in the development world and tell them to get there act together about IPV6 coz it's not going to fly on a home rig until it stops mis-behaving.

SJ

[yesplease]

Originally Posted by SlowJet: IPV6 is mainly used for private networks, cluster communication, and is concitered expermental.

Originally Posted by Yagisan: And small out of the way places, such as Japan. I think you'll find it is not considered experimental, and deployed more widely then you think.

Yagisan has a valid point there. Users should know the consequences of disabling IPV6.

[LaSSarD]

thanks it really works
i'm using fasterfox to chronomete it and all the pages are 1/4 faster (at least)

[canadianwriterman]

Originally Posted by Yagisan: And small out of the way places, such as Japan. I think you'll find it is not considered experimental, and deployed more widely then you think.

Yagisan has a valid point there. Users should know the consequences of disabling IPV6.

I've heard this comment before and have been searching the Web for some authoritative information on the "consequences of diasbling ipv6." I can't find any. However, when you Google "disable ipv6" it appears that almost everyone is doing it.

I had to disable it both in Firefox and within the system because everything was taking so long to look up ip adddresses.

[Yagisan]

Yagisan,

You may be perfectly correct but on the number of posts on site taking your view vs. the router being stupid is running about 3 to 1 against you.

True most people disagree with me, but I honestly doubt most of those people are network engineers and actually understand how the IP protocols work. It's a bit like this, I'm not a doctor, but I've seen House, and All Saints, and a few other doctor shows. Now if you have something wrong with you, I could after watching those shows offer an opinion on your problem - I'd probally be wrong though, as I have had no medical training.

And it doesnt matter ..
Globally off takes care of all and any futrue programs trying to use IPV6.

Yes quite right, unless you are one of the users that connects via IPv6 (then you have a problem don't you)

I am not in Japan.
I don't have any IPV6 addresses nor do I connect to any.

Japan is just one of many places that use IPv6. Consider the fact that other users may require that functionality.

So go round up the unusal suspects in the development world and tell them to get there act together about IPV6 coz it's not going to fly on a home rig until it stops mis-behaving.

Well, IPv6 flys on my home rig, and my business rigs, but I obviously don't use the same applications as you. You will need to be specific about the applications that you use.

And there are other slow downs occuring, not just the browswer and mail.

I had to disable it both in Firefox and within the system because everything was taking so long to look up ip adddresses.

Now I can't force you to not disable IPv6, but going with my doctor anolgy, the slowness you percive with some applications is the symptoms, but is not the underlying cause. The underlying cause is that the applications you are useing are buggy, and need a bug report filed on them to prompt the developers to fix them.

You may treat the symptons, or you can treat the underlying cause. It's like breaking an arm (the underlying cause) - it hurts like hell (the symptoms) and you take some painkillers to stop the pain, while leaving your arm in a twisted wreck - or you can set up arm in a cast so it can heal.

I've heard this comment before and have been searching the Web for some authoritative information on the "consequences of diasbling ipv6." I can't find any. However, when you Google "disable ipv6" it appears that almost everyone is doing it.

A bit of common sense will tell you that if you disable it it won't work. Not a good thing if you are are user that relies on IPv6.

So in conclusion, before you blindly disable IPv6, make sure you are aware of the facts, and choose whether to treat the symptoms, or the underlying cause appropriatly.

[canadianwriterman]

Well, IPv6 flys on my home rig, and my business rigs, but I obviously don't use the same applications as you. You will need to be specific about the applications that you use.

When ipv6 is enabled, the following applications are extremely slow on their initial connection (and fast with ipv6 disabled):

Firefox
Opera
Epiphany
Synaptic
The "Add Applications" frontend of Synaptic
The gdesklet for weather
The "Weather Report" application addon for the panel

I cannot believe that all these applications (although some are using the same core code) are at fault.

A bit of common sense will tell you that if you disable it it won't work. Not a good thing if you are are user that relies on IPv6.

So in conclusion, before you blindly disable IPv6, make sure you are aware of the facts, and choose whether to treat the symptoms, or the underlying cause appropriatly.

My post was in response to comments like "use caution when disabling ipv6" and "understand the consequences." Please don't dismiss me as not having any "common sense." I've spent a great deal of time searching (including www.ipv6.org for the slightest scrap of information that would enlighten me on what these consequences might be... to no avail.

I understand that ipv6 is a replacement standard that is intended to replace ipv4 and that it is taking time to phase in. Nowhere I have I seen any definitive information on the so-called consquences.

Let me assure you that with my machine, connected to my ISP and accessing the IP addresses that I access, ipv6 has had a negative impact. Also, I've experienced no problems by diasbling ipv6.

As for you rather dismissive comment: "...if you disable it it won't work. Not a good thing if you are are user that relies on IPv6," How am I to KNOW that I rely on ipv6. If you have that knowledge, please share it with us ignorant folks who are "blindly disabling ipv6" so that all the programs we rely on to connect to IP addresses function effectively. It would be greatly appreciated.