Devices connected to the internet use unique codes to identify each other. These codes are what we call public IP addresses. Thus, your IP is visible to anyone as long as you connect to the internet. A generic user doesn’t care about this exposure, but beware, as the address can land you into severe trouble. A third party can use your IP address to track you in real-time, for instance. However, those who worry about their privacy can ultimately employ a VPN to solve these issues.
A VPN hides your IP by allowing you internet connection via remote servers. But sometimes VPNs leak. They can render your IP, DNS, or any significant PII (personally identifiable information) exposed online. Most VPNs can only tackle IPv4 technology, so if you are running IPv6, it may fail. That’s why we came up with this article—to enlighten users on how to disable IPv6 in one of their favorite VPNs, NordVPN.
What is IPv6?
Similar to IPv4, IPv6 is an Internet protocol that creates assigns and uses IP addresses. However, it is the upgraded version of the 32-bit numerical address. Forty years ago, when engineers came up with IPv4 to accommodate over 4.3 billion users, they failed to perceive the astronomical demand for the internet. Thus, an upgrade happened in the 90s to accommodate the potential overgrowing user base. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, which provide approximately 3.4×1038 unique addresses.
Some advantages of IPv6 are as follows:
- Enhanced security — Compared to the IPv4 ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol), which is susceptible to malware, IPv6 ICMP can use IPsec, a suite of security protocols to ensure the safety of data traffic. The three critical goals of IPv6 are confidentiality, authentication, and data integrity.
- No geographical limits — More than 50% of IP addresses got reserved for the US during the IPv4 creation. However, IPv6 won’t favor any geographical region and will be available en masse upon integration.
- Efficient routing — IPv6 would have better service quality and user experience. Unlike IPv4, which employs variable headers, this one has longer yet consistent ones. It would reduce the hardware processing, and the relevant codes for routing would become simple.
- End-to-end connectivity — Today, IPv4 depends on the NAT (Network Address Translation) to communicate over the internet. NAT also helps relieve some pressure from the IPv4 due to the lack of addresses. However, IPv6 would have sufficient addresses to render NAT obsolete, thus ensuring direct connection.
- Autoconfiguration — IPv6 won’t rely on servers. Instead, it would allow devices to auto-generate addresses based on their MAC address.
IPv6 v/s IPv4
There are specific ways IPv6 is different from IPv4. While one uses the 128-bit protocol, the other relies on a 32-bit one to form addresses. Furthermore, IPv4 uses VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Mask) while IPv6 doesn’t. Here are more distinctions:
| Feature | IPv4 | IPv6 |
|---|---|---|
| Notation | IPv4 addresses use 32 bits with dot-separated decimal notation | IPv6 addresses utilize 128 bits with colon-separated hexadecimal notation |
| IP headers | A header in IPv4 is 20 to 60 bytes in length | Headers have a fixed size of 40 bytes |
| Address types | Broadcast, unicast, and multicast | IPv6 offers unicast (global, link-local, loopback, unspecified, unique local), multicast (well-known, transient, solicited-node), and anycast |
| Address configuration | DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) | SLAAC (StateLess Address Auto Configuration), DHCPv6, and manual |
| Local address | ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) | NDP (Neighbor Discovery Protocol) |
Does it matter if your VPN doesn’t support IPv6?
Most popular VPN vendors don’t support IPv6. They work flawlessly with IPv4 addresses but leak IPv6, and NordVPN is no exception. Thus, if you attempt to route IPv6 traffic via a tunnel, chances are it will go unencrypted through the default gateway and ISP. Hence, it does matter if your VPN sustains IPv6 or not. NordVPN offers exclusive protection to IPv6 leaks for now and plans to protect the traffic in the future.
What is an IPv6 leak?
An IPv6 leak occurs when your VPN fails to route the “interested traffic,” the data travels through the default gateway and ISP (Internet Service Provider) without encryption. Although it offers solutions for IPv6 leaks, the optimum method is to disable IPv6 traffic on your device.
How to disable IPv6 in NordVPN?
The easiest way to prevent IPv6 leaks is to turn off IPv6 on your device. Given below are various steps one should follow to disable IPv6 in NordVPN. You can also head over to the IPv6 leak prevention NordVPN page for further help.
Ways to disable IPv6 for NordVPN on Windows
Deactivating IPv6 on Windows for NordVPN is easy. Do this:
- Launch the Start menu.
- Then go to the Settings by clicking on the gear icon.
- Now, locate and click on Network & Internet.
- After that, choose your network type from the left panel.
- Then click on Change Adapter Settings.
- It will launch a new page with all the TAP adapters available.
- Now select your active TAP adapter and right-click.
- After that, select Properties.
- Then go to the Networking tab and uncheck the box next to Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).
- Lastly, reboot your device.
Turning off IPv6 for NordVPN on Mac
Depending on your operating system version, you can choose either technique detailed below to stop using IPv6 on macOS.
Using the built-in Network option on macOS
First, click on the Apple logo and go to Preferences. After that:
- Click on Network.
- In the “Network” menu, click on your connection type (Ethernet or Wi-Fi).
- Now click on the Advanced button on the right side of the screen.
- Then change tabs and go to TCP/IP.
- Now toggle the Configure IPv6 option off or select “Link-local only” from the drop-down menu.
- Lastly, click on OK.
Utilizing macOS Terminal to get to IPv6 settings
Start by opening Finder on your Mac. Then:
- Click on Applications.
- Locate the Utilities folder and click on the Terminal app.
- Now enter the following command in the Terminal app:
- sudo networksetup -listallnetworkservices
- Now you will find a list of all your network connections. To turn IPv6 off, enter the following command:
- sudo networksetup -setv6off “Ethernet”
- sudo networksetup -setv6off “Wi-Fi”
- Enter the name of the respective connections inside the quotation for Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi.
Get rid of IPv6 on Android
Stopping the use of IPv6 on an Android device looks like this:
- Go to the Settings app on your Android device.
- Locate the SIM card and Mobile Network tab.
- Now, launch the SIM card settings by touching the SIM card button.
- Then scroll down and touch the Access Point Names tab.
- Now, press the Access Point tab to launch advanced settings.
- Then scroll down and locate APN protocol and APN roaming protocol.
- Touch them and change it to IPv4 instead of IPv4/IPv6. This will successfully turn IPv6 off on your device.
Disabling IPv6 on Linux
You can stop using IPv6 on Linux with a few lines of code. We will employ distinct series of codes for different operating systems. For example, on Red Hat-based distributions, open the Terminal window by pressing the Ctrl + Alt + T keys. After that, change to Root User and type the following commands:
- sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1
- sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1
- sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.tun0.disable_ipv6=1
You can simply replace 1 with 0 to re-enable IPv6.
Stop using IPv6 on Debian-based distributions
Open the Terminal window again. Now:
- Enter the following command:
- sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf
- Sysctl file will now open in Terminal. Add the following command lines to the file to disable IPv6:
- net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
- net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
- net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1
- net.ipv6.conf.tun0.disable_ipv6 = 1
- After that, save the changes by pressing Ctrl+O and Ctrl+X.
- Then, enter the command “sudo sysctl -p” to apply the changes in the Sysctl file.
- Now reboot the system. You can enable IPv6 again by deleting lines from steps 1 and 3.