Comparison of IPv6 application support
This is a comparison of popular Internet applications in regards to their support of the IPv6 protocol.
IPv6 support table
Application |
Category |
IPv6 supported? |
Zone ID supported? |
Earliest version # with IPv6 support |
Notes |
Reference links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ftp.exe |
Console application |
5.1 (XP) |
Standard Windows FTP client. |
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Linux NetKit ftp |
Console application |
0.17? |
Standard Linux FTP client. |
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telnet.exe |
Console application |
5.1 (XP) |
Standard Windows telnet client. |
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Linux NetKit Telnet |
Console application |
0.17? |
Standard Linux telnet client and server. |
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BSD Telnet |
Console application |
1.2? |
Telnet and telnetd from OpenBSD. |
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Nmap |
Console application |
3.10ALPHA1 |
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AbsoluteTelnet SSH |
SSH Client, Telnet Client, SFTP Client |
5.01 |
Supports SSH, Telnet, and SFTP |
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PuTTY |
SSH client |
0.58 |
Fully functional (also Zone ID's) from 0.59 |
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OpenSSH |
SSH client/server |
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CUPS |
Digital printing |
1.2 |
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Internet Explorer |
Web browser |
4.01 |
Versions before 7.0 may not be able to handle numerical addresses. Macintosh versions do not support IPv6. |
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Konqueror |
Web browser |
2.2 |
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Mozilla / SeaMonkey |
Web browser |
IPv6 is not preferred by default on Mac OS X. |
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Mozilla Firefox |
Web browser |
1.5 |
IPv6 is not preferred by default on Mac OS X. |
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Opera |
Web browser |
7.20b |
IPv6 support on Macintosh was added in Opera 9.0 |
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Safari |
Web browser |
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Mozilla Thunderbird |
e-mail client |
Version 2.0 & later appears to work with Mac OS X Version 10.4.9. |
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Outlook Express |
e-mail client |
Windows Mail on the Windows Vista platform has IPv6 support. |
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Microsoft Outlook |
e-mail client |
2003? |
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Apple Mail |
e-mail client |
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Windows Media Player |
Multimedia player |
9.0? |
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VLC |
Multimedia player |
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Winamp |
Multimedia player |
5.34 |
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TightVNC |
VNC |
Protocol version 3.5 |
Experimental IPv6 builds were made available in 2004. |
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xinetd |
Networking daemon |
1.89 |
Version 2.3.3 or newer recommended to avoid security issues. |
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Apache httpd |
Web server |
2.0.14 |
"Virtual hosts on IPv6 addresses are broken in versions until 2.0.28" |
[http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+IPv6-HOWTO/hints-daemons-apache2..html] |
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Hiawatha |
Web server |
6.0 |
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IIS |
Web server |
6.0 |
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lighttpd |
Web server |
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Windows File and print sharing |
SMB/CIFS client/server |
5.2 (Server 2003) |
Windows XP does not support IPv6 at the SMB/CIFS layer. The protocol is available for other applications ("ipv6 install" pre-SP1; protocol install afterwards). |
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Samba |
SMB/CIFS client/server |
Patches are available that add IPv6 support. |
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Linux CIFS VFS |
SMB/CIFS client |
1.49 |
cifs vfs version 1.48 is part of kernel 2.6.21 |
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Wget |
File transfer software |
1.9? |
May default to IPv4 transfers: use the "-6" option to override. |
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cURL |
File transfer software |
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BIND |
DNS server |
4.9.4, 8.4.1? |
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Microsoft DNS |
DNS server |
5.0 (2000) |
Windows 2000 DNS can handle AAAA records, but the operating system does not implement an IPv6 networking stack. |
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Pidgin |
Instant messenger |
2.0 (GAIM had support in older builds) |
IPv6 is enabled on Linux builds, but not on Win32 builds. |
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Trillian |
Instant Messenger |
? |
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mIRC |
IRC client |
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XChat |
IRC client |
1.7.0 |
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Irssi |
IRC client |
0.7.15 |
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Squid cache |
Proxy server |
3.0-devel |
Development work has been intermittent from 2001-2007. |
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Proxy server |
0.8 |
Can be used for proxying between IPv4 and IPv6 |
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Proxy server |
1.5 |
Non-caching proxy. |
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WWWOFFLE |
Proxy server |
2.6d |
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SOCKS server |
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Nortel Networks VPN client |
VPN client |
? |
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OpenVPN |
VPN client |
2.0 |
Does not support "server mode" in IPv6: multiple tunnels require separate ports. |
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tinc |
VPN client |
1.0 |
Defaults to IPv6; can be set to IPv4-only. |
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Quagga |
Routing software |
OSPFv3 area support is incomplete. |
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rsync |
differential file synchronizer |
2.5.0 |
native IPv6 support since 2.5.0, but hosts allow/deny in rsync.conf didn't work until 2.5.6. |
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OpenLDAP |
LDAP server |
2.0.0 |
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Novell eDirectory |
LDAP server |
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ACTIVE Directory |
LDAP server |
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Programs that bridge IPv4 with IPv6
- NT6tunnel: can be used to map a local IPv4 port on XP to a server IPv6 port. 46
- stone: can be used to provide IPv4 ports at the IPv6 layer. 47
- 46Bouncer: IPv4-IPv6 bridging application; last updated in late 2001. 48
In addition to the above specific tools, many client/server applications can be configured to go through a double-stack HTTP or SOCKS proxy to reach the other Internet. Those that cannot can often use an SSH tunnel.
Other references
- Vendor-Application database
- "Current Status of IPv6 Support for Networking Applications": last updated in 7-2007.
- IPv6 Application and Patch Database
- "IPv6 Enabled Applications": last updated in 3-2003.
- "Hints for IPv6-enabled daemons": chapter 21 of TLDP's Linux IPv6 HOWTO.
- Implementing AF-independent application by Jun-ichiro 'itojun' Itoh.
- Porting Applications to IPv6 bye Eva M. Castro.
See also
- IPv6 translation mechanisms