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TechKnowSurge Catalog Videos DEMO: IPv6 Addresses
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DEMO: IPv6 Addresses

IPv6 addressing on Windows involves multiple address types—link-local, global unicast, and temporary—each serving a distinct role in local and internet communication. This demonstration uses ipconfig to explore how a Windows machine automatically generates and manages these addresses.

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About this video

IPv6-enabled Windows machines maintain multiple addresses simultaneously, each fulfilling a specific function in the addressing architecture. The link-local address—identifiable by its FE80 prefix—is automatically generated on every active IPv6 interface and enables immediate communication within the local network segment without any manual configuration or external server. This address is locally significant only and is not routed beyond the local link. Alongside the link-local address, the machine uses a router solicitation message to locate the default gateway, which responds with a router advertisement containing network prefix information. The gateway itself is also identified by a link-local FE80 address, visible in the ipconfig output as the default gateway entry. Using the prefix information received from the router, the machine performs stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC) to derive a globally routable IPv6 address by combining the network prefix with a self-generated host portion. Windows produces two globally routable addresses from this process: a standard global unicast address tied to the interface, and a temporary address that changes periodically. The temporary address preserves global reachability while introducing a layer of privacy, since a rotating address makes it significantly harder for external parties to correlate browsing activity or track a device's presence across different services and sessions over time.

What you'll learn

What's covered

IPv6 on Windows Demo

Aligned to

Cisco CCNA
1.9 Describe IPv6 address types
1.10 Verify IP parameters for Client OS
1.8 Configure and verify IPv6 addressing and prefix
Cisco CCST Networking
2.3 Identify IPv6 addresses and prefix formats
CompTIA Network+
3.4 Given a scenario, implement IPv4 and IPv6 network services
CompTIA A+ Core 1
2.6 Compare and contrast common network configuration concepts

Key terms

Link-Local Address
An IPv6 address in the FE80::/10 range that is automatically assigned to every IPv6-enabled interface and used only for communication within a single network link. It cannot be routed beyond the local Layer 2 segment and is required for Neighbor Discovery and router communication.
Global Unicast Address
GUA
A publicly routable IPv6 unicast address beginning with the prefix 2000::/3, equivalent in role to a public IPv4 address, used to identify a device uniquely across the internet. GUAs are assigned by ISPs and regional internet registries and are the addresses used for internet-facing communication in IPv6.
Temporary IPv6 Address
A globally unique IPv6 address assigned by Windows that changes periodically to provide anonymity and prevent tracking of a device across external networks.
Router Solicitation
RS
An ICMPv6 message sent by an IPv6 host when it initializes to prompt routers on the link to send a Router Advertisement immediately, rather than waiting for the next periodic RA interval. Router Solicitation speeds up IPv6 address autoconfiguration on newly connected devices.
Router Advertisement
RA
An ICMPv6 message periodically broadcast by IPv6-enabled routers to announce their presence, advertise network prefixes, and provide default gateway information for SLAAC. Hosts also request RAs immediately on startup by sending a Router Solicitation.
Stateless Address Autoconfiguration
SLAAC
An IPv6 mechanism that allows devices to automatically generate a globally unique IPv6 address using the network prefix from a Router Advertisement combined with a locally generated interface identifier, without requiring a DHCP server. SLAAC uses the EUI-64 process or a random interface ID to create the host portion of the address.
Default Gateway
The router that a device uses to send traffic to destinations outside its local network.

Transcript

To see what IP version 6 addresses look like on a Windows machine, what I'm going to do to view this is click the Windows button here and type in cmd and hit enter. This is going to bring up a command prompt, and I'm just going to make it a little bit smaller here.

To view the IP addresses on this machine, I can type in ipconfig, and it's going to show me all of the IP addresses on this machine. We're looking specifically at this Ethernet adapter right here, not the Wi-Fi or any of the other ones. So as far as this Ethernet adapter is concerned, we take a look at this: it gives you an IP version 6 address, a temporary IP version 6 address, a link local IP version 6 address, an IP version 4 address, and a default gateway — both an IP version 6 and an IP version 4 address for the default gateway.

The link local address

So how does it come up with this? Well, first of all, this link local is something that's necessary on any IP version 6 enabled interface. If it is up and running and it's an IP version 6 interface, then what it needs is this link local address. It starts with FE80 and comes up with the rest of this that's locally unique on there. What that allows it to do is start communicating right away. So now it can communicate on its local network via this link local address here.

Finding the default gateway

Another thing that it needs to do is it needs to know what network it's on and what the router is, what the default gateway is. So it sends out what's called a router solicitation and gets a router advertisement back. Essentially it says, who's the router on there, and it gets back information from the router. So now it knows the default gateway from that. It gets this back from the default gateway, and this also is a link local address. It's an FE80 address, and this is specific to the default gateway of this network.

Autoconfiguring the host bits

From there it also understands what its network is, so it will get some information from this. It's actually called SLAAC, and we'll get much more into it, but it gets information from this auto configuration called SLAAC. And so from there it gets the network that it's on, which is right here: the network that this is on is FC0000 col 1 col 1 col 0. So that's the network that this machine is on.

And then it can configure the host bits part of this. So it autoconfigures the host bits part of this, and it does it for two different addresses. It does it for this IP version 6 address, and that's just your globally unique address that it can get out to the outside world with.

The temporary address

But Windows does this temporary IP version 6 address as well. Why they have created the temporary one is so that they have this address that can be changed now and then. It's still globally unique, so it can get to the outside world, but it creates a little bit of anonymity, meaning that you can change it up. If you just use the same IP version 6 address all the time, then people would start associating — wherever you go could be associated to your device. And so by changing it up now and then, you create some obscurity, where people can't necessarily track all of the sites that you've been to and where you're going to and stuff. So it just creates a little bit of obfuscation there, which from a security standpoint could be important.

So that is the IP version 6 addresses.

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