27 Jun IPv6 Connectivity – Gaming Internet

Faster Gaming Speeds

Of course you’re excited at the prospect of getting fiber Internet to your home; being able to play your favorite video game on a network with speeds of 1 gigabit per second is certainly something to be excited about! And now, Phynx Fiber has officially added our name to the short list of IPv6 Internet service providers in Missouri!

What is IPv6?

If you’re a gamer or tech geek of any caliber then the concept of IPv6 service probably isn’t foreign to you, but if you’re looking for a quick refresh in terminology then here’s why IPv6 is such a cool thing: IPv6 is short for Internet Protocol version 6, the latest version which encompases newer technology to support Internet communication between many (and we mean many) devices.

Very few Internet service providers offer their customers IPv6 service, but it’s more than just elitism that makes it special. The main benefit of an IPv6 compatible service is it eliminates Network Address Translation (NAT) which is currently a requirement for multiple devices connecting to the Internet.

IPv4 vs IPv6

Just like our social security numbers, every device on the planet is required to have a separate and unique IP address. The most frequently used service for providing IP addresses is IPv4, which provides 4.3 billion addresses. While that number may sound like a lot, it isn’t even close to how many are needed to support the rapidly growing global infrastructure. Think about the number of Internet-capable devices on the planet – and we’re not just talking about computers, either. By the time you add up all of the smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices with Internet access it doesn’t take long to exhaust those 4.3 billion IPs.

That’s where NAT comes in, by managing multiple devices on one Internet connection (like your home network). NAT is a technique to conserve IPv4 addresses, akin to assigning apartment numbers inside of a building with a single address: 123 Main Street, Apartment 2b. All the apartments share one unique global address (123 Main Street) and use a specific address that only has meaning in the context of the Main Street address. There could be an Apartment 2b within every building in town – so you have to include the Main Street address for the apartment number to have true meaning. While this works great for many applications, NAT does not enable end-to-end communication between devices so there will always be a system in the middle performing the translations (like a mail room in a large office building).

The benefits of low latency IPv6 internet connectivity

IPv6 would open up the entire, usable address space to 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. (Yes, you read that correctly, although I doubt many know how to say the actual number as it’s not a figure that is often thrown around.) That’s much better than IPv4’s tiny-by-comparison 4.3 billion! Plus it would make the concept of NAT obsolete.

Most modern hardware natively supports IPv6 providing vast improvements in latency and security providing quicker response or “low ping” (a ping is a single packet sent to a computer to check connectivity and latency, or the time it take in milliseconds for this ping to reach said device) . during multiplayer style gaming. Plus, these devices are able to auto-configure themselves rather than relying on address to be assigned to them. Generally speaking, IPv6 will allow for more technological innovation as there are less limitations on device support.

Many gaming consoles including the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch all support IPv6 as well. (Note: while the PS4 itself does support IPv6, the Playstation Network does not as of June 2017.) For the past few years, many gamers haven’t been able to fully experience the benefit of playing on IPv6 consoles as long as their ISP didn’t have the network support behind it – unless you were to setup port forwarding on your router to overcome NAT. Now with Phynx Fiber’s IPv6 support, gamers can continue gaming with less lag for a looong time to come.

Good news: You already have IPv6 with Phynx Fiber!

Phynx Fiber has specifically allotted a /48 prefix to each subscriber’s network, expanding their number of usable IP addresses to 1,208,925,819,614,629,500,000,000! The high-end routers we install as a part of our service package already includes IPv6 compatibility with fully native dual stack architecture by default, so there’s no second-guessing the hardware or software we’re providing.

All of our customers get our IPv6 service – whether you’re an avid gamer or not. See for yourself: run an IPV6 test now over your Phynx Fiber connection!

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