It’s just a little over 4 months until IPv6 is enabled world-wide on most major sites including Google and Internode.
As you’ll probably notice, all of the sites running on the Redpoint VPS support native IPv6 (including this blog). In reality, enabling native IPv6 support is a lot less difficult than it seems.
Enable it at your Hosting Provider
Support at this level is a little less important now that CloudFlare supports transparent IPv6 across the board (so you’re site will be IPv6 even without an IPv4 address). That said, CloudFlare can only cover HTTP-based requests so if you’re doing any advanced work or exposing non-HTTP services you’ll need support from your provider.
Most providers at this point will be providing IPv6 blocks in addition to an IPv4 address. Your best bet is to check your provider’s blog or support site before searching around in your control panel (almost every provider that enables native IPv6 support is going to want to advertise that fact).
If your provider doesn’t support native IPv6 yet, demand to know why and where it’s at. If your provider has no plans or hasn’t yet begun transitioning to IPv6, I’d suggest changing providers (mainly because they’re probably not too quick on their feet when it comes to other issues like security either). We use Linode who has IPv6 enabled in all datacenters except Tokyo.
Enable CloudFlare
If you’re provider doesn’t have native IPv6 support yet but are actively transitioning to supporting IPv6 natively, you can still get ahead of the pack and have IPv6 for free on at least the HTTP-facing services.
Sign up for CloudFlare (it’s free) and follow the prompts to add your domain to CloudFlare system. Once the domain is added and you have your main subdomains enabled with the orange cloud, head to the CloudFlare settings page and turn on Automatic IPv6. Once the DNS caches around the world have updated to point your site through the CloudFlare system, you’ll see IPv6 records appear.
Check with your ISP
Above handles enabling IPv6 on your server. It’s potentially more important to ensure that your home or work connection with your ISP can handle IPv6 as well, unfortunately at least in Australia not many providers support native IPv6.
If you’re with Internode and have a IPv6-compatible router (all routers sold by Internode support IPv6), follow the instructions on this support page to enable it before World IPv6 Launch Day. If you’re a new customer for Internode, they automatically enable it for you.
So there you have it. Despite appearances, it is currently possible to get native IPv6 from your house to your server without tunneling for absolutely no cost. I would know, I get to SSH to my box over IPv6 without a single tunnel in sight!