What is the format and syntax of an IPv6 address?
IPv4 relied on 32 bit addresses, expressed in 4 octets, for example 192.168.10.1 IPv6 uses 128 bit addresses expressed in hexadecimal numbers (with letters not case-sensitive), represented in 8 groups and separated by colons, for example: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334 It’s rather long, so this address can be shortened, by removing the leading zeros in each group: 2001:db8:85a3:0:0:8a2e:370:7334 One instance of one or any number of consecutive groups of 0 value may be replaced with a single set of two colons (::): 2001:db8:85a3::8a2e:370:7334 Note that this substitution with double-colon may be performed only once in an address, because multiple occurrences would lead to ambiguity. At first glance, shortening addresses might be confusing, but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite simple. The localhost address, 0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 can be written simply as ::1 The first group, shown in our example as 2001, is called a prefix and is used to qualify address t
