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There are many questions on SE and elsewhere about turning off ipv6 on Linux. I want to do the reverse : how can I force the system to use ipv6 as often as possible ?

It's mostly for learning purposes and I must admit I don't know much about ipv6 or networking in general. Ideally, this should not break things and allow programs to switch to ipv4 if necessary.

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  • If your system has IPv6 connectivity what you describe is the default behaviour. Did you test it and run into problems? Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 11:30
  • In my experience, all programs use ipv4 by default even though ipv6 is enabled. I wondered whether I could switch the default to ipv6. Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 12:04

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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To enable the IPV6 run:

sysctl net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=0

To disable it , run:

sysctl net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1

To check for IPv6 support in the current running kernel, run:

test -f /proc/net/if_inet6 && echo "Running kernel is IPv6 ready"

Edit

You can easly monitor IPV6 traffic through netdata tool , it can be installed as follows :

git clone https://github.com/firehol/netdata.git --depth=1
cd netdata
./netdata-installer.sh

Open your browser and type http://127.0.0.1:19999/ on the address bar .

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  • Thanks, it seems to be already enabled. Is this all that's needed for programs to be able to use ipv6 ? If I'm on a connection that only allows ipv6, will the system use it ? Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 12:03
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    Yes , you can visit deepspace6.net/docs/ipv6_status_page_apps.html to get some information about the IPv6 Support Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 12:27
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    Do you have a globally routable IPv6 address? If you run the command ip -6 addr, does it print an address with scope global? Linux prefers IPv6 over IPv4, if both can be used. Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 13:03
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    I do have a globally routable IPv6 address. Now I'm not sure what protocol is used. Is there a simple way to monitor IPv6 traffic ? Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 13:42
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    @YdobEmos Your ISP must provide you with IPv6 service. Unfortunately, some backward ISPs still do not. Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 16:22

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