There have been a lot of books and articles about IPv6 over the last few years. They all warn (a bit too ambitiously, it turns out) of the impending demise of IPv4, and they all sing the praises of IPv6: enough address space to give every star in the sky a public IP, ironclad security, the end of address spoofing, seamless interplanetary roaming, and Quality of Service up the wazoo. But none of these prior publications ever told you how, exactly, to make the transition to IPv6. This book does exactly that. In fact, its motto is "The chief thing is not to study, but to do."

The book starts out with the obligatory IPv6 background story. You can skim the first chapter if you're already a believer. But then Murphy and Malone do something completely uncalled for: They sing the praises of IPv4. Unlike their Chicken Little predecessors, these authors acknowledge that IPv4's death has been greatly exaggerated. They expound on the amazing resilience of the IPv4 Internet, which has scaled far beyond the protocol's original designers. They tell the tale of life-saving workarounds, such as network address translation and auto configuration, which bought time for us all. And they talk about IPv4's future. Yes, there is one!

In chapter 3 the writers roll up their sleeves and dig into the meat and potatoes of IPv6. This is necessary, if somewhat dry, knowledge, but Murphy and Malone liven up the discussions with wry quotes and footnotes. A classic one on the dangers of underestimating user needs: "As Bill Gates is alleged to have said, '640k should be enough for anybody.'" The authors point out some non-obvious features of IPv6, such as the lack of broadcast addresses -- multicast packets are used to accomplish the same functions more effectively, and more safely. This chapter spares no subject, covering every IPv6 protocol aspect: packet and address formats, header compression, routing, security, QoS, and mobile capabilities.

Once you understand the basics (I had to read Chapter 3 several times to get the hang of it), you're ready to deploy an IPv6 network, right? Wrong. IPv6 is not a seat-of-your-pants endeavor. You must plan your network design carefully, and the authors show you how to do that in Chapter 4. You'll learn how to get IPv6 address space, how to connect to the IPv6 Internet, and what you'll need to do to transition your existing infrastructure to IPv6 without crashing the network. It's sort of like doing brain surgery on yourself. While you're driving on the freeway. During rush hour. The authors provide helpful examples.

In Chapter 5 you finally get to configure something! This discussion explains the nuances of Linux, Macintosh, Unix and Windows configuration, router setup, troubleshooting procedures, and the proverbial Gotchas waiting for the unwary. Only after reading this chapter you'll be wary and wily, and IPv6-qualified.

The remaining chapters cover maintaining and monitoring IPv6 networks, details of how IPv6 effects the most popular IP services, such as HTTP, FTP, and SMTP, and the intricacies of coding IPv6 applications.

No IPv6 book is complete without a prediction of future events. This one is no different, other than that the authors are brutally realistic. They point out, with classic understatement, that IPv6 still has a few loose ends, such as DNS. Then they pontificate on some of the future new applications that IPv6 might spawn. Thankfully, they refrain from putting a date to the IPv4 Apocalypse -- the first pundits I've seen take this high road.

You must own this book. Or get into real estate.

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ipv6na/