On Aug 29, 2013, at 4:13 PM, Dan Crutcher wrote: > A tech guy was in our offices today checking out our network and he > recommended that we turn off IPv6 on all our Macs. He said we don't use it, > as we're on IPv4 and that it slows down the network. > > Can anyone out there advise me on whether his information is correct, and if > so, how does one turn off IPv6? My Network panel has an option to Configure > IPv6, but the only options offered are Automatically, Manually and Link-local > only; there's no option to disable or turn off. A Google search shows how to > turn it off via Terminal commands, but I'm reluctant to do that without > unless someone I trust can verify that it won't hurt anything. > > I suspect this is a question for Lee, whom I trust to know everything > knowable about all aspects of every kind of computer hardware or software > ever devised. Don't let me down, Lee!
I'll do my best. This is sort of a complicated subject. I leave it on because Bonjour uses it. This makes it a lot easier to set up printers and such by discovery instead of having to know IP addresses. It's also the way the Airport Utility finds an Airport Extreme. I suppose the added overhead could slow down Web surfing a tad because most ISPs aren't IPv6 smart (cough, TWC, cough), but I've never noticed any difference with the cable Internet, and I've tried it both ways. A lot of the possible Web slowdown depends on your router's method for dealing with IPv6 packets. If you're really worried about it, you could try setting your Macs and your router to Link-local only. This should keep all the IPv6 packets inside your LAN. (Link-local only seems kind of like using the 192.168.xxx.xxx addresses in IPv4.)
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