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Microsoft Windows XP, Linux and BSD all have experimental IPv6 stacks available. FreeBSD 4.x ships IPv6-ready. Linux kernel 2.4.x also has an IPv6 module. And Microsoft has a downloadable kit for IPv6 available on its Web site. Make sure to install some IPv6 applications--such as ping6, traceroute6, a Web browser and FTP client--so you can do stuff. Here's a simple test: Take two IPv6-capable machines, give them both an IPv6 address (on the same subnet) and attach them to the same switch. The machines should be able to ping each other. This will at least tell you that the systems are working properly before tackling the harder tasks, such as routing and communicating to the world.

Now comes the hard part--getting a unique, globally routable IPv6 address and sending data to other sites on the 6bone. The simplest answer is to find an IPv6 ISP, and get your addresses and a direct connection to the 6bone from it. Good luck finding one in the United States, though. Your remaining option is to tunnel IPv6 traffic over an IPv4 link (similar in a way to tunneling IPX over the Internet between two offices) by using what's known as 6to4 encapsulation.

The easiest 6to4 method is to use the freenet6 client. Viagénie, a Canadian company, is giving away /48 subnets that have been allocated. A /48 subnet lets you create 65,535 subnets with 264 nodes per subnet. That's a lot of nodes. The client software automates setting up a 6to4 tunnel with them and turns your computer into a dual-stack IPv6 router. We used it in our labs with a FreeBSD 4.0 server and were on the 6bone in a matter of minutes.

If you want to take the harder route, you can manually figure out your IPv6 network derived from your globally routable IPv4 address and find someone to hook you into the 6bone. Every IPv4 address houses an /48 IPv6 network behind it. For example, let's use the IP 192.168.47.5 (though you should use your real Internet routable IP address). The first step is to derive your IPv6 address from your IPv4 address by converting from decimal to hex. One way of doing this is to issue the command perl ­e "printf('%x %x %x %x', 192, 168, 47, 5);", which outputs c0 a8 2f 5. The IPv6 address will start with "2002:", which is reserved for 6to4 conversion. The next part will be your IPv4 address in hex, followed by whatever you want to set up your /48.

Our demo IPv6 address is "2002:c0a8:2f05:0001::2", with 0001::2 chosen arbitrarily. Now you need to find someone willing to set up a route between your derived IPv6 address and the 6bone. This can be done by anyone on the 6bone, though it's a good idea to pick a site close to you that can handle your traffic load. There are also some public anonymous 6to4 routers available--but some are slow or unreliable. We had so much trouble using these public routers that we went screaming back to the freenet6 client. Still, using a public router or finding a provider that will set up a static tunnel for you will grant you a real IPv6 network that you own and control.