Consumer vendors not ready for IPv6: report

Stephen Withers
Friday, 20 February 2009 11:42

IT Industry - Market

However, Market Clarity notes "a strong reluctance from consumer CPE vendors to respond to this study."

That could mean things aren't as bad as the study concludes, but it seems reasonable to expect that companies whose consumer products do or could handle IPv6 would be only too keen to trumpet the fact.

The research firm asked five vendors if their products can be upgraded to support IPv6.

One said the protocol was already supported, two said an upgrade was possible, one said it wasn't, and one did not answer the question.

It's a shame that we aren't told how each company answered, as the partial anonymity tends to tar all five companies (Billion, D-Link, Linksys, Counterpath and Netgear) with the same brush.

But here are some clues: the Linksys RVS4000 router incorporates IPv6 support, though it's more a small business product. And last year, D-Link announced IPv6 firmware for some of its home routers.

The good news is that the four that currently don't support IPv6 say plans are in place and IPv6 will be fully implemented within a year.

What will consumers need to do? Please read on.