Loopback address
Despite having so many IP addresses available, the IPv6 developers realized that the loopback address range used in IPv4 wasted so many IP addresses. Therefore, in IPv6, there is only one loopback IP address and that is ::1. This is obviously the shortened version of the address, and all the preceding hexadecimal characters are zeroes.
By understanding the various address types, you will be able to not only identify what an address is used for, but you will also be able to identify whether it has been applied correctly. For example, you may see a link-local address in use when you were anticipating a global unicast address.
Now, we have discussed the address formats and types, let's move on to actually assigning an IPv6 ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access