Thursday, December 9, 2010

Google over IPv6



Access Google services over IPv6

At Google, we believe that IPv6 is essential to the continued health and openness of the Internet – and that by allowing all devices on a network to talk to each other directly, IPv6 will enable innovation and allow the Internet's continued growth. Typical Google users do not need to do anything to prepare for IPv6, but we are working with network operators to support the transition.

In March 2008, we began offering Google search over IPv6 on IPv6-only websites like ipv6.google.com (IPv6 connection required), but other Google products were not generally available over IPv6.

That's why we created Google over IPv6. If you operate a network that supports IPv6, we may be able to enable Google over IPv6, letting you give users seamless access to most Google services over IPv6 simply by going to the same websites they usually use, such as www.google.com.

How it works

Google over IPv6 uses the IPv4 address of your DNS resolver to determine whether a network is IPv6-capable. If you enable Google over IPv6 for your resolver, IPv6 users of that resolver will receive AAAA records for IPv6-enabled Google services.


Normally, if a DNS resolver requests an IPv6 address for a Google web site, it will not receive one…


…but a DNS resolver with Google over IPv6 will receive an IPv6 address, and its users will be able to connect to Google web sites using IPv6.



How to get started using Google over IPv6

To qualify for Google over IPv6, your network must meet a number of requirements. These include:

  • Low latency, redundant paths to Google using direct peering or reliable transit

  • Production-quality IPv6 support and reliability

  • Separate DNS servers for your IPv6 users (not shared with IPv4-only users)

  • Users who have opted in to IPv6 services and know how to opt out if they experience problems with Google services


If your network meets these requirements and you'd like to receive Google over IPv6, please see our FAQ for how to request access.
Source: Google

1 comment:

Chaz6 said...

You forgot to mention that if you are google apps user you can exchange "ghs.google.com." for "ghs46.google.com." in your dns records. You can also use either the Hurricane Electric or Sixxs dns caches which are on the Google ipv6 whitelist.

When will I be able to send mail to gmail users over IPv6, and when will google provide IPv6-connected dns servers (ns[1-4].google.com and google-public-dns-[ab].google.com.). Finally, the google public dns cache does not support resolving domains hosted on ipv6 servers - e.g. mirror.ipv6.chaz6.com.