Network guide
What is IPv6?
Reviewed 10 September 2026 · 5-minute read
IPv6 is the current Internet Protocol specification with 128-bit addresses. It provides a vastly larger address space than IPv4 and is commonly deployed alongside it.
How IPv6 addresses are written
An address uses eight hexadecimal groups separated by colons. Leading zeroes in a group can be omitted, and one consecutive run of zero groups can be shortened with ::. For example, 2001:db8::1 is documentation syntax.
IPv6 does not automatically mean privacy
An IPv6 address remains network information visible to the service receiving a connection. Privacy extensions can rotate interface identifiers, but an address can still reveal a network prefix and approximate routing information.
Why sites may show only one version
A browser chooses a working route for each request. This page reports the source address of that request, not an independent test of both IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity.