6 to 4 Adapter - Please Explain

[Jerry]

I use Vista Home Premium on a Dell PC XPS 420. In Device Manger my 6 to 4
adapter had a yellow caution symbol next to it. The Dell tech told me I did
not need that adapter and disabled it. Recently I have had network adapter
issues in that when my computer comes out of the Sleep mode, it takes maybe 3
to 4 minutes to get an I.E. connection. So, I thought I might try to enable
the 6 to 4 adapter to see if that would help my problem. When I did that I
got a message saying “Windows cannot load the drivers. Code 31â€
1. What is the purpose of the 6 to 4 adapter?
2. Do I need to have it working?
3. If so, how can I get the drivers?
4. Do you think the 6 to 4 adapter could be causing my I. E. problem?
Jerry

 

[DL]

6-4, isnt that connected to battery power supply?
Check the power settings for the network card in hardware devices.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I use Vista Home Premium on a Dell PC XPS 420. In Device Manger my 6 to
4 adapter had a yellow caution symbol next to it. The Dell tech told me
I did not need that adapter and disabled it. Recently I have had
network adapter issues in that when my computer comes out of the Sleep
mode, it takes maybe 3 to 4 minutes to get an I.E. connection. So, I
thought I might try to enable the 6 to 4 adapter to see if that would
help my problem. When I did that I got a message saying “Windows cannot
load the drivers. Code 31†1. What is the purpose of the 6 to 4
adapter? 2. Do I need to have it working?
3. If so, how can I get the drivers?
4. Do you think the 6 to 4 adapter could be causing my I. E. problem?
Jerry

Sometimes updating the driver for your network card will fix this. The
6to4 adapter is probably not the cause of your problem. Updating the NIC
driver may fix that as well.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I have an HP Pavilion laptop with the same device with a yellow symbol.
I asked someone on the HP forum and they said just leave it. He said
that IPv6 is the next generation of internet protocol. We currently are
using IPv4.

There's a thread about 6to4 adapter here:
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2382240&SiteID=17

The salient point (IMHO) is this: "Microsoft 6to4 Adapter is used for
communication in mixed environment including both IPv4 and IPv6."

*Very* few people are using IPv6 at this point. That will no doubt
change in the future when all the IPv4 addresses are used up, but
right now all the websites you use and all your network apps know
about IPv6, not IPv4. So you're not going to have to worry about IPv6
for quite a while yet.

 

[Jerry]

Tim -

Thanks to you and the others who responded. I had read "a mixed
environment" statement on my Network and Sharing page, but was not sure what
that statement meant. Does "mixed" mean an IPv4 and IPv6 working at the same
time? I talked to Dell, but am not sure I got a good answer. The tech told
me the 6 to 4 adapter and IPv6 had a relation to the 64 bit system. So,
since I use 32 bit, I did not need to worry about it.

Now, you made the statement, "right now all the websites you use and all
your network apps know about IPv6, not IPv4." Is this what you meant to say?
It implies everyone is using IPv6.

Thanks,
Jerry

 

[Tim Slattery]

Tim -

Thanks to you and the others who responded. I had read "a mixed
environment" statement on my Network and Sharing page, but was not sure what
that statement meant. Does "mixed" mean an IPv4 and IPv6 working at the same
time?

That's right.

I talked to Dell, but am not sure I got a good answer. The tech told
me the 6 to 4 adapter and IPv6 had a relation to the 64 bit system. So,
since I use 32 bit, I did not need to worry about it.

As I said earlier, you don't need to worry about it. But not because
it has anything to do with 64-bit computing. IPv6 is supported by both
32- and 64-bit versions of Vista (and other OSs). It's just that IPv6
is very little used these days. (Except for some countries that came
to the party late and have grown quickly, like China.)

 

[Jerry]

Tim -

Thanks again for the clarification.

Jerry