MS Windows XP

Windows XP embeds IPv6 functionality by default, as the TCP/IP protocols suite includes both IPv4 Internet Layer and IPv6 Internet Layer. However, Windows XP contains a separate implemen-tation of TCP and UDP for IPv6.

By typing at the command prompt

# ipv6 install

it will enable and initialize IPv6 functionality on your host. By default, Windows XP automatically configures the link-local address for each interface that corresponds to installed Ethernet adapters. Link-local addresses have the prefix FE80::/64. The IPv6 address for each Ethernet interfaces de-rives from the FE80::/64 prefix and a 64-bit suffix that derives from the IPv4 plus MAC addresses of the network adapter. For example, a host with IPv4 address 195.225.29.15 and MAC address 00-00-39-3f-7b-90 is assigned the link-local address fe80::200:39ff:fe3f:7b90. The host is now ready to communicate with other hosts in the same Ethernet segment.

Windows XP supports stateless address autoconfiguration mode, with which network site-local addresses, route entries and other configuration parameters are automatically configured based on the router message advertisements. However, Windows XP hosts may manually be configured through the network configuration shell “netsh” and following set of commands:

# netsh interface ipv6 {add, set, delete, …} <parameters>

The netsh shell allows the configuration of the IPv6 addresses, the manipulation of the route entries and many other tuning and showing configuration commands. For example, the following command sets the site local address 2001:648:220::1 to the interface “Local Area Connec-tion”:

# netsh interface IPv6 add address “Local Area Connection” 2001:648:220::1

The complete syntax of the netsh command shell is the following:

# netsh interface IPv6 add address InterfaceNameOrIndex \
IPv6Address [[type=] unicast|anycast] \
[[validlifetime=]Minutes|infinite] [[preferredlifetime=] \
Minutes|infinite][[store=]active|persistent]