If your applications use a graphical UI, before you convert the applications from IPv4 to IPv4/IPv6, you must make numerous decisions regarding how addresses of different lengths will display.
To decide how to display IP addresses
- Decide whether the address will contain all sequences of zeros, such as FF02:0:0:0:0:0:0:2, or whether it will use the double-colon notation, such as FF02::2.
- Decide whether to use a number- (hexadecimal) based or a name-based address representation.
Note In general, due to the length of IPv6 addresses, use names in the UI instead of using 128-bit addresses. If you use names, consider using naming conventions for the user interface and for use in error checking.
For maximum IPv6 address string length, see INET_ADDRSTRLEN in ws2tcpip.h.
- Decide whether to identify specific parts of the addressing scheme. You may want to identify the following address parts:
- Subnet prefix, scope identifier, or other subfields
- Top Level Aggregator (TLA) that identifies the highest level in the routing hierarchy
- Next Level Aggregator (NLA) that identifies a specific customer site
- Site Level Aggregator (SLA) that is used by an organization to identify subnets within its site
- Decide whether to discern embedded IPv6 addresses. If so, decide how the addresses will be handled and displayed.
- Decide whether to discern between IPv4-compatible addresses and IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses.
Next, you must run the Checkv4 utility as described in Running the Checkv4 Utility.
See Also
How to Convert an Application from IPv4 to IPv4/IPv6 | Unicast IPv6 Addresses
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