DNS, or the Domain Naming System, has been around for many years. The existing Internet would not be able to scale by adding nodes through people with such varying skills without it. The basic function of DNS is to map hierarchical domain names (e.g. www.usipv6.com) onto IP addresses (e.g. 123.45.67.89, for IPv4), which is what is actually used in packet headers for addressing on the wire (See Figure 1in entire article). You can think of DNS as the Internet's (automated) telephone book, as a start.

Most of our attendees are from Northern Virginia, so I'd like to thank you as a group, and get you thinking about your collective might and how much you can accomplish if you get your Congressional delegation out in front on IPv6. Just write and ask them to lead on IPv6. They can and will.

Good, The Bad and The Ugly was a 1966 film made by Italian director Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood (the Good) and other guys who went on a three-hour treasure hunt for $200,000. Internet Protocol version 6 is a 1998 technology created by smart guys in the Internet Engineering Task Force that has gone on a seven-year treasure hunt that some think will lead to a trillion dollar industry.

Interview of Dr. Kilnam Chon by Alex Lightman

In the year and half since we've published 6Sense we've used articles as our sole means of communicating IPv6. In the interest of getting wider exposure, and allowing for tighter focus on key issues, people, and places, this month we begin our first interview series. Our first IPv6 expert is Professor Kilnam Chon...

Here are some of the top points from the Congressional Hearing on IPv6 that I think should be considered by the IPv6 Community...

After hearing over 350 presentations on IPv6 from IPv6-related events in the US (seven of them), China, Spain, Japan, and Australia, and having had over 3,000 discussions about IPv6 with over a thousand well-informed people in the IPv6 community, I have come to the conclusion that all parties, particularly the press, have done a terrible job of informing people about the bigger picture of IPv6, over the last decade, and that we need to achieve a new consensus that doesn't include so much common wisdom that is simply mythical. There are many others in a position to do this exercise better than I can, and I invite them to make a better list than mine, which follows...

IPv6 can be the basis either for the US to become more deeply interwoven with its military allies and key trading partners and pay for its physical imports with data flowing via our world-class end-to-end networks, or to become more isolated from the rest of the world, with less and less that other advanced nations need or want. The US has gone from being a net exporter of virtually every major category to being a net importer of food, goods, capital, and high technology in 2005, even as the dollar heads towards the currency equivalent of being de-listed as the world’s reserve currency...

I recently discussed participation in the Coalition Summit for IPv6 with a number of companies. Some of them were sponsors of past IPv6 Summits we've organized. Others are just getting started with IPv6. Nearly all have the same questions: When will the IPv6 market happen in the US? When will we be able to attribute product sales to IPv6?...

On January 20, 2005, President George W. Bush was sworn in for his second term, and gave a speech that sent shock waves around the world, because many leaders could infer that it announced a crusade against non-democracies. Since Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Russia are more or less allied with the US against Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, and China and Tibet are not free by American definitions, not to mention Iran, North Korea, and a host of other nations, the speech seemed to set the bar for America’s goal – a world without un-free countries – well beyond the grasp of a nation that is running half trillion dollar trade deficits and half trillion dollar federal budget deficits...

The US IPv6 Summit 2004 was an outstanding success from many perspectives, and my staff and I were overwhelmed and delighted to receive over 400 compliments from speakers, attendees, and sponsors. The IPv6 community is growing into a very positive, constructive, supportive team of teams, which is exactly what is needed to build a new network of networks under, over, and alongside the IPv4 network of networks...

As the publisher of this newsletter, and chairman of the four IPv6 Summits in the US organized over the last two years, I’ve read or viewed over 100 articles and presentations related to IPv6. Something is missing from nearly all of these presentations. Where for goodness sake are stories that the average person, even a tech journalist, can relate to? Features are often covered, benefits less so. Even more rare are success stories related to IPv6. Without success stories, developers don’t envision future customers, and consequently don’t invest time to make related applications or take the risk of trying new things...

Attendance registration is ahead of the last three IPv6 Summits our team organized (in San Diego, June 2003, Arlington, Dec. 2003, and Santa Monica, June 2004) for four major reasons: the return of the Dept. of Defense to Internet leadership; the requirement to develop IPv6 transition plans by the individual services and other US government agencies; participation in the special meetings to be held Dec. 9; and the emergence of software and services companies as the core drivers of the IPv6 industry. Let’s look more closely at each...

President George W. Bush and his administration have turned their attention away from winning re-election to preparing for the next four years, and to the judgment of history. Of all the slings and arrows from John Kerry, the one that had to sting the most was Kerry’s “America cannot afford a President who’s the first to lose jobs since Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression.” As evidenced by the election returns on Nov. 3, most voters understood that there are down turns, especially after the boom in the ‘90s, and that 9/11’s trillion dollar loss cost jobs as well, but all eyes will be watching to see whether and how the Bush administration creates jobs – and especially how many...

If you indicate expertise or even interest in IPv6, you will sooner or latter be asked to give a PowerPoint presentation and why your colleagues should care. You might also want to be pro-active, and offer to give talks on how IPv6 will potentially impact and enhance your specific industry. As we move towards the US IPv6 Summit 2004 we see new presenters coming to into prominence who are focused on new and novel applications, services, network design, systems, and training, especially related to the Dept. of Defense IPv6 Transition...

John Maxwell, in his best-selling book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, says that the 20th law is The Law of Explosive Growth: To add growth, lead followers - to multiply, lead leaders. In August 2004 we are seeing the emergence of new leaders in IPv6, in government and industry, even in the midst of what looks like a very quiet month. We in the IPv6 community will succeed to the extent that we create and support successful, flexible leaders. Here are my picks for people worthy of widespread support. Who would you add to this? Feel free to write and tell me at alex@usipv6.com and I'll summarize in the Sept. 6Sense...

There have only been about 60 million Californians, compared to over 60 billion humans. Californians thus represent only about 1 in every 1,000 humans that have ever lived, yet California dreaming has been the source of some the most imaginative products and services in history. Arguments could be made for which of these brainstorms was the most useful, but there is a strong case for packet switched networks (conceived by Paul Baran of Santa Monica’s RAND), which largely contributed to the creation of the Internet...

While the eyes of billions of people will be focused on the Athens (athletics) Olympics, a few tens of thousand others will be focusing on a different kind of Olympics, an economic Olympics, to see where the thundering herd of $25 to $50 trillion in liquid capital will be parked. Inflation is starting to rear its head after being scarce in Western economies for two decades, and interest rates are going to rise. 2004 is when a number of critical inflections will happen globally, and a key determinant of where the funds will go will be determined by how the top few tens of thousands of financial decision makers judge not only the wealth of nations but also the competence of governments. There are 260 countries, so in part they are looking at which governments seem as though they are going to be best able to adapt to new circumstances...

I'm writing this from Beijing, where the China IPv6 Global Summit concluded yesterday. 2,500 people were registered and 25 sponsors (from the US, Canada, the EU, and Japan as well as China) showed the support for a boom in IPv6. China already has over 300 million mobile phone users, enough to use up every one of the remaining Internet addresses for IPv4 once they switch to the mobile Internet, as China seeks to leapfrog nearby Japan and Korea, which have nearly 80 million mobile Internet users between them. The diffusion of IPv6 is very different in each country...