IPv6 Network Administration

Autoconfiguration

In the early days of IPv4, host (re)configuration was something that required the intervention of a skilled operator. Even in the early days of the Internet boom, end-users were required to enter IP addresses and other configuration details manually. However acceptable this might have been to early adopters at the time, automatic configuration was absolutely necessary in getting less technically savvy people on-line. Even today, reconfiguration of a host can be tricky if it has the same IP address for a long time, as an address can gradually appear in more and more configuration files, forgotten about until that crucial moment.

The two main protocols that perform this configuration, DHCP for corporate networks, and PPP for dialup, have played large parts in getting us to the Internet penetration levels we see today. DHCP helps to centralize IP configuration details for networks, making it possible for end-users to "plug-and-play" without having to ring the hapless network administrator to find out their DNS settings. PPP, and its cousins PPPoE and PPPoA, have relieved the consumer ISP's end users of almost any configuration work^[4] beyond typing a username and password.

This is a particularly key element for deploying large networks and IPv6 aims to improve autoconfiguration even further—providing large networks with limited support staff should be possible with IPv6.

^[4] Of course the PPP-based services have to be configured by ISP technical staff, but the end ...