2012/05/31

Windows XP and IPv6

I am helping an organization to write a 40-page consumer guide on IPv6.  One sub-section deals with IPv6 in Windows XP and its limitations. This is what I have come up with today.


"While IPv6 functionality is present in Windows XP, it is not suitable for use in a corporate network environment. The following limitations are found in Windows XP in support of IPv6:


1.  There is no graphical user interface for address assignment and these tasks must be performed at command line.
2.     There is no DHCPv6 client in Windows XP. An IPv6 router can only use Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) to assign address to a Windows XP PC.
3.     Privacy protection mechanism in address assignment through SLAAC is not enabled by default. Activity tracking based on the IPv6 address is possible
4.     The personal firewall of Windows XP is broken when IPv6 is installed. When a port is open in IPv4, the same port is also open in IPv6.
5.     Windows XP can not have name resolution over IPv6. Some websites will not be accessible by Windows XP if the domain names of the websites are hosted in IPv6 only name servers."

After reading the above, I doubt people still want to use IPv6 in Windows XP.  

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