Plus, at least until World IPv6 Day, not a lot of content was running on native IPv6 anyway. ( See my story on the topic, IPv6 on home routers and DSL/cable modems: FAIL ) In the gear makers' defense, most have been avidly working to perfect their IPv6 implementations. However when network gear makers like Cisco drag their feet on native support for IPv6 in home networking equipment, efforts by ISPs to get their customers IPv6 ready are hampered. Cisco has been and will continue to be a leader in the development of IPv6 so consumers can feel confident that products from Cisco will provide top-line performance now as well as providing a foundation for the future."
It is critical that consumers begin looking for products and devices that support IPv6. Later this spring, Cisco will begin enabling IPv6 across its consumer line of routers including the Linksys E4200 Maximum Performance Dual-Band Wireless-N Router. As ISPs begin rolling out IPv6 service to their customers, consumers will need new routers and gateways that support IPv6 to participate in this next generation Internet. A Cisco spokesperson told me in February: "IPv6 is foundational to the next-generation Internet, enabling a range of new services and improved user experiences. That said, even Cisco's own marketing department agreed that buyers of new network gear should insist on IPv6. Routers that can only handle IPv4 addresses will still be able to access the Internet for years, and perhaps reach new native IPv6 sites, if Carrier Grade NAT can be counted on and if it doesn't cause more problems than it's worth (more on this).
That's not a practical task to ask the typical consumer to do, but when consumers get IPv6, it will be part of their consumer premises equipment from their ISPs.
Most Network World readers know that they can wipe out the vendor's firmware and install OpenWRT or DD-WRT and get IPv6 that way. Maybe it's not important to most consumers if their pre-2011 home routers get IPv6 or not. There was no word then, and there still isn't any now, if other late-model wireless routers will get a free IPv6 firmware upgrade. (See story: Cisco Linksys gear targets boom in home use of 802.11n wireless nets) Cisco promised that free firmware upgrades for the rest of the new gear would trickle out through the fall. Obviously, the firmware upgrade for the high-end E4200 was MIA too. In April, Linksys released a blitz of seven new products, none of them with IPv6 support. In February, I wrote about the missing IPv6 in Cisco's Linksys gear and was told by Cisco that it was coming in April for its high-end E4200.
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