AUSTIN, TX - OnRamp, Austin Data Center operations provider and long-time ISP, announced today that it will  participate in World IPv6 Day on Wednesday, June 6, 2011.  As a participant in this day, OnRamp will be offering the content on its website (www.onr.com) over IPv6 for a 24-hour period “test-flight.”  The goal of the day is to  encourage organizations across the world to prepare their services for IPv6 to  ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.  Many of the  major internet services and content providers are participating alongside  OnRamp, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Akamai. A complete list of  participants can be found at http://isoc.org/wp/worldipv6day/participants/.

The transition to IPv6 comes as the Internet is on the brink of running  out of IPv4 addresses.  The final  allocation from the main pool of IPv4 addresses to each of the Regional  Internet Registries may be imminent, but will certainly occur within the next  few months.  Then each Regional Internet  Registry will institute procedures to conserve the remaining numbers and to  recover underutilized IPv4 numbers. With IPv4 addresses running out this  year, the industry must act quickly to accelerate full IPv6 adoption or risk  increased costs and limited functionality online for Internet users everywhere. The companies are coming together to help motivate organizations across the  industry—Internet service providers, hardware manufacturers, operating system vendors and other web companies—to prepare their services for the transition.

On World IPv6 day, it is anticipated that a small subset of users on the Internet will not be able to see the participating sites at all, either through  IPv6 or IPv4.  This is due to a condition that is described as “IPv6  Brokenness.”  IPv6 Brokenness is caused when a computer has IPv6 enabled  but is served by an IPv4 only network. Normally, an IPv6 enabled computer  would connect to all of the above websites via IPv4 since the sites themselves are IPv4 only.  However, on World IPv6 day, all of these sites will  simultaneously turn on IPv6.  Any computer with IPv6 enabled connected to  an IPv4 only network will try to form an IPv6 connection to these sites, which  won’t be fulfilled by the IPv4 only network in between the computer and the  IPv6 enabled sites. To the user, it will appear that large parts of the Internet are down. The solution to IPv6 Brokenness is to turn off IPv6 on  any computer that is connected by an IPv4 only network.

“After months of planning and testing, OnRamp is successfully routing  IPv6 and is ready to begin assisting customers in the deployment of IPv6,” said OnRamp Founder and VP Chad Kissinger. “As one of Austin’s original Internet Service Providers, we are  committed to being at the forefront of technology and the IPv6 movement and we  stand ready to assist customers in the IPv6 transition.” With IPv4 addresses running out this year, the industry must act quickly to accelerate full IPv6 adoption or risk increased costs and limited functionality online for Internet users everywhere. The companies are  coming together to help motivate organizations across the industry—Internet  service providers, hardware manufacturers, operating system vendors and other web companies—to prepare their services for the transition.