Google: Russia and France are ahead in IPv6

A study carried out by Google employees and presented at the RIPE meeting in Dubai examined how widespread use of version 6 of the internet protocol, IPv6, is among end users. The study drew some surprising conclusions. For instance, just this past September, Arbor Networks placed worldwide use of IPv6 at only 0.0026 per cent, but according to the Google study, the percentage of computers using IPv6 access to the internet grew steadily from 0.192 per cent in August up to 0.238 per cent in October. The Google scientists concluded that on an additional 0.09 per cent of computers, an IPv6 internet connection is not functioning properly.

IPv6 Connections By Country The study also broke down its data geographically. The share of IPv6 internet users amounted to 0.76 per cent in Russia and 0.65 per cent in France, putting those two countries on top worldwide. In the US, the figure was 0.45 per cent. Asian countries – China and Japan had rates of 0.24 per cent and 0.15 per cent. According to the researchers, the great regional differences can be explained by providers, such as Free.fr, which assign native IPv6 DSL connections to their clients. In North America, for instance, 95 per cent of all IPv6 users access the IPv6 internet via a 6to4 tunnel; in France, only 5 per cent have to use this method. In China, 71 per cent of all IPv6 connections are native.

The scientists also assessed which operating systems IPv6 surfers were using. Nearly 2.6 per cent of all computers with Mac OS X use IPv6, followed by Linux at 0.93 per cent, and Windows Vista at 0.32 per cent. 52 per cent of all IPv6 hits come from MacOS X computers using 6to4 tunnels with routers, such as the Apple Airport Extreme.

Google is making its mark as one of the first big content providers for IPv6. The company's search engine has been accessible over the IPv6 Internet since the beginning of this year.

(djwm)