Intro

It’s both a blessing and a curse that the proxy market is so abundant in different types. There’s a proxy for almost any use case, but it also makes the purchasing process unnecessarily difficult. The reason for such variety is that with each new method of connecting to the internet, there’s a new way to set up a proxy.

IPv6 is the newest internet protocol standard. Most web servers have yet to adopt it, but we already can purchase a proxy server based on it. What these proxies are and whether you should start buying them are the questions I will answer in this article.

What are IP addresses?

Let’s cover some basics before we dive in deeper. IP stands for ‘Internet Protocol,’ and simply put, it’s a set of rules used by devices to communicate with each other between networks. The basic idea is to allow devices to send data packets, which can be either requests or responses.

A device, such as your smartphone, may send a request to a server, and then it may or may not respond with the needed data. If the server responds as needed, a website, video, or other web service takes place on your device. Now, a server might receive millions of such requests, and he needs a way to identify devices to serve them.

That’s why the internet protocol requires each device to have an IP address - a unique string of characters that identifies them. Every modem, smartphone, PC, or TV will have an IP address as long as it can connect to the internet.

To ensure that no two devices have the same IP address, each character string is tied to a geographical location and assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). They, in turn, are regulated by international authorities such as The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

The problem is that professionals have noticed back in the 1990s that we will run out of IP addresses. Without a proper way to identify and locate each device, the internet would not function. Something had to be done about it, and thus, internet protocol versions were born.

Internet protocol versions

The first three versions of the Internet were not publicly available. They were invented by the fathers of the Internet - Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn - back in the 1970s for use in the US military.

The first versions didn't need to support many devices, so the problem of allocating millions of IP addresses wasn't an issue. These versions weren't released to the public and were used only for research purposes.

IPv4 was the first version that was released publically. It uses 32 bits to create unique addresses, which, in practice, enables the generation of 4.3 billion IP addresses. Here's how an IPv4 address looks like:

01.102.103.104.

Although four billion might sound like a lot, it isn't, and by 2011, the last unassigned IPV4 addresses were used. This does not mean that no new connections to the Internet were possible, just that if it's an IPv4, it's a reused address.

After some failed attempts with IPv5, which later gave rise to Voice over IP VoIP connection, IPv6 was born. It gave the possibility to assign an unimaginable 340 undecillion unique IP addresses.

To put it into perspective, every atom in the solar system could be assigned an IPv6 address. The reason is that this format uses a clever 128-bit combination of various characters, not just numbers. Here's how it looks:

2001:db8:3333:4444:5555:6666:7777:8888

How does the Internet protocol version affect proxies?

The moral of the story is that we will never run out of IP addresses, but why should a proxy user care about it? There’s no change from the user side, and only around a third of devices have adopted IPv6.

To answer this, we must remember why we use proxies in the first place - for anonymity and security. The number of IPv6 addresses is growing exponentially, and if you want to hide, you are better off doing it in a larger crowd. That’s exactly what you will achieve with IPv6 proxies.

Of course, the user count is still not in the IPv6 favor, so I would not recommend switching to IPv6 completely. If you are managing a large pool of proxies, the best strategy is to mix in IPv6 proxies proportionately to the internet user base. So, for now, aim to have three IPv6 proxies with every ten IPv4 ones.

This will also ensure that you can avoid one major drawback of IPv6 proxies. Some websites still don’t support this newest protocol. If you have a proxy pool that exclusively uses IPv6, there might be compatibility issues. The issue is more theoretical as most ISPs also establish a workaround connection to IPv4.

However, it’s still good to have your own solution in case the provider's DNS servers or ISP don’t work. The risk of theoretical incompatibility is totally worth it if you care whether your IP address is a new one.

With an IPv6 proxy, there is a higher chance you’ll get a connection that has never been used before or, at least, used sparingly. Providers often refer to them as “virgin” or “fresh” proxies for marketing purposes. It does sound like a marketing gimmick, and it is when it comes to IPv4 proxes.

Attaining new proxies with IPv4 is nearly impossible, as every possible combination has already been used. There are some unused IPv4 registries, but these are nearly impossible to attain unless you are from the government. IPv6 proxies, on the other hand, are almost guaranteed to be fresh.

Wrapping up

If you already have a large pool of IPv4 proxies, there is no need to dump them and go all in for IPv6 ones. However, if you are just starting to build a new pool or want to add some fresh IPs into the mix, there’s hardly a better option than IPv6 ones.