# Do I need ipv6 enabled for anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877 "2008-05-19T18:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/1 "2008-05-19T18:56:20Z")
My wireless Internet connection is running extremely slow under Ubuntu. I’ve switched to using OpenDNS and turning off ipv6, and it is now at an acceptable speed. But, I’ve seen on various forums that people have claimed ipv6 shouldn’t be turned off. What is it used for, and will I run into any problems with it off? (I could just wait to see if everything works, but I’ll probably have forgotten that I turned it off by tomorrow :smack:) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/2 "2008-05-19T19:09:12Z")
[IPv6.org](http://www.ipv6.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/3 "2008-05-19T21:18:38Z")
No, not yet. It’ll be a while before IPv6 matters. But what is your setup like that having IPv6 off makes any difference at all in speed? Is it the OpenDNS part? ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/4 "2008-05-19T21:53:19Z")
I switched to OpenDNS and turned IPv6 off at the same time, so I’m not sure which caused the speed up. Loads of people complain about IPv6 causing slowdowns on Ubuntu, though. ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/5 "2008-05-19T22:15:34Z")
In my experience, having a good DNS will speed up page loads considerably (I use XP, not Unbuntu, though). I have Verizon FIOS, and a suggestion I found was to put “hard” Verizon DNS address into the TCP/IP properties tab, instead of obtaining them automatically. IPv6 shouldn’t have an effect, as I understand it. ---
**Author:** ![eldowan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@eldowan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eldowan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/6 "2008-05-19T23:17:19Z")
If you slugishness was when you browsed to a new domain, and not between pages at the same domain (like the threads here at the SDMB) than your issue was likely due to DNS. I hear tell (sorry no cite) that some ISPs have underpowered DNS servers that can cause slow downs when browsing to new domains. (This also applies to sites that have content linked from other sources, adsence, google-analytics, etc…) ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/7 "2008-05-20T11:54:54Z")
Yeah, that sounds like what was happening. I could browse the SDMB and other websites that I had previously visited at a normal pace, but as soon as I tried to navigate away from them, it was taking ages, and kept producing errors. I might try to re-enable IPv6, then. ---
**Author:** ![eldowan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@eldowan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eldowan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-i-need-ipv6-enabled-for-anything/449877/8 "2008-05-20T21:15:30Z")
[QUOTE=Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party] Yeah, that sounds like what was happening. I could browse the SDMB and other websites that I had previously visited at a normal pace, but as soon as I tried to navigate away from them, it was taking ages, and kept producing errors. I might try to re-enable IPv6, then. [/QUOTE] You should see no change in re-enabling IPv6. Good luck to you and happy browsing.