What are IPv4 and IPv6 proxies in 2023? and how it helps in carrying out online tasks.
According to IP2location, the United States of America has a total of 1,535,324,160 IP addressesassigned. As internet users are growing at an exponential rate, it becomes necessary to come up with enhanced versions of Internet protocol addresses to fulfill the requirements. This article will explain the most popularly used IP address versions, IPv4 and IPv6, and their characteristics.
Take the example of someone who wants to send a courier to your place. The main thing they need is your name and address. Once they acquire your address, they can send couriers to your home. Taking the same scenario, you want to send data online, so how to do that? The same thing, you need to acquire the host’s address (target).
IPv4 and IPv6 are internet protocols, or IP addresses, that enables internetworking, which means that it helps to form the internet. But there are two internet protocol versions. Which one is better? The direct answer is IPv6, but we have to compare IPv4 and IPv6 to conclude and justify why IPv6 is better than IPv4. In the upcoming sections, we will see IPv4 and IPv6, their pros and cons, what IPv4 and IPv6 proxies are, and the best IPv6 proxies in 2023
IPv4 and IPv6 – What Are They?
As mentioned above, IP (Internet Protocol) versions 4 and 6 are mainly used for communication, routing, and addressing data packets in electronic devices, such as desktops, tablets, mobiles, and laptops, throughout a series of interconnected networks. The critical thing to note here is every IP address to every device, such as a desktop, is unique and in numerical format. For example, the IP address will look like 198.111.110.00.
The IPv4 consists of a 32-bit format, i.e. 2^32, and has around four billion addresses. Even though that is substantial, it can lead to exhaustion based on the number of active users on the internet. To eliminate that problem, a new internet protocol addressing system was proposed, IPv6. IPv6 is an upgraded version of IPv4, and it consists of 128-bit, i.e. 2^128, which is four times bigger than IPv4, thus eliminating the exhaustion of the IP addresses
Pros and Cons of IPv4:
Pros:
Consumes Less Memory — IPv4 uses a less memory cache to store and retrieve IP addresses at a faster rate.
Seamless Support — Since IPv4 is old compared to IPv6, hundreds of thousands of devices are already supported and integrated with IPv4.
Security Support — IPv4 provides encryption to your IP address and traffic to maintain reasonable security and privacy of your online activity.
Cons:
Inferior Routing — Internet routing is inferior when compared to IPv6 (Internet routing is the process of transferring internet protocol packets through the internet between two endpoints (URL)
Higher Cost — The system management price is high compared to IPv6. The whole system is complex and highly labor focused.
Limitation in Number of Addresses — As mentioned above, the main drawback of IPv4 is a limitation on the number of addresses. Around 4 billion may look daunting, but considering the number of new users daily, IPv4 will efficiently run out of new, unique addresses.
Pros and Cons of IPv6:
Pros:
High Speed — Since it is the successor of IPv4, IPv6 is faster. IPv6 supports multicast (distribution of one-to-many networks instead of a one-to-one network, which is the IPv4 approach).
Increased Number of IP addresses — As mentioned above, the number of unique addresses is four times higher than IPv4. In those situations, there is little to no possibility of running out of IP addresses.
Routing — A superior and efficient approach to internet routing traffic.
High-Level Security — IPv6 authentication header is responsible for enabling data integrity, data authentication, and anti-reply protection.
Cons:
Complex Integration Process— Since IPv4 is still widely used, it will take longer to integrate IPv6 into existing or future devices.
Difficulty in Communication — It is still difficult to communicate between IPv4 and IPv6 devices. It is necessary to have a specific approach, such as a target server, to support both protocols or intervene in the router itself. The best practice is to stack both protocols above one another so the server can run both IPv4 and IPv6.
Now you have a basic idea about IPv4 and IPv6 and how they differ from each other. From the pros and cons of both protocols, we can safely say that IPv6 is a better solution than IPv4.
Go through the blog “IPv4 Vs. IPv6” which lists the differences between protocols.
What Are IPv4 and IPv6 Proxies?
Proxies are intermediaries between you and the target servers. They mask your original IP address with their IP address, so the target has difficulties finding you. The remainder is easy to put together. A proxy that supports IPv4 addresses is known as an IPv4 proxy, and a proxy that supports IPv6 addresses is known as an IPv6 proxy.
Example: A IPv4 address is a 32-bit address, such as 172.16.254.1 (8+8+8+8 byte). A proxy with the same address means that it is an IPv4 proxy. An IPv6 address is a 128-bit address, such as (0123: 4567: 89ab: cdef: 0123: 4567: 89ab: cdef). If we convert from hexadecimal to binary format, these codes will have 128-bits or 16 bytes. Another simple way to identify IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are that IPv4 only consists of numerical addresses, whereas IPv6 contains alpha-numeric addresses. IPv6 proxy servers are best suited for mobile devices since IPv6 supports colon-type addresses.
Before implementing proxies into your devices, check what protocols your devices support, whether IPv4 or IPv6.
Best IPv6 Proxy:
ScraperAI:
ScraperAI is one of the best online proxy providers for IPv6 proxies. Having more than 20 million IPv6 proxies, you can rest assured that you will never run out of proxies whenever you are working. The main thing to note here is that they have no dedicated or datacenter proxies. All proxies are mixed (based on different ISPs, or Internet Service Providers), and you can change proxies anytime you want. You can simply add comments, such as “&premium=true”, to get residential proxies. Other functionalities are geo-targeting and JS (JavaScript) rendering.
Best IPv4 Proxy:
ProxyScrape:
ProxyScrape is the best proxy provider for IPv4 addresses online. ProxyScrape provides three services: residential, dedicated, and premium proxies. Let’s briefly learn about the three services:
HTTP proxies are a little faster than Socks proxies because they consume fewer server resources. With a total network capacity of over 20Gbps, this proxy server type should suit the majority of high-speed use cases.
Residential Proxies – Residential proxies are less targeted because they represent standard IP addresses. With a median speed of 1000ms, residential proxies are best for highly demanding tasks like web scraping. Also, residential proxies are rotating proxies, meaning that your IP address changes each time you connect to the ProxyScrape network. For now, residential proxies support HTTP(s), username, and password authentication. Currently, there are 7 million IP proxy networks.
Premium Proxies – Premium proxies are the same as dedicated proxies. The only difference is that other people share proxies in the premium plan. With bandwidth up to 50,000 HTTP/s and socks4/5 datacenter proxies, you can rest assured that you can focus on your web activity. Premium proxies are best suited for high-internet traffic activities.
Dedicated Proxies – Dedicated proxies are data center proxies with unlimited bandwidth, which only you can use. Thus, you have more control over them than shared proxy networks. With up to 1GBPs, you can perform any high-speed tasks without hiccups. The average timeout for dedicated proxy servers depends on the type of protocol:
HTTP(s): 375ms
Socks4 & Socks5: 575ms
Uptime: 99.99%
ProxyScrape provides you with a user-friendly dashboard for managing all your proxies. With 24/7 customer technical support, ProxyScrape can resolve your problem within 24 hrs.
NOTE: As mentioned above, IPv4 proxies are still used in most organizations for personal use. Also, almost all devices, such as desktops, laptops, and mobiles, support IPv4; checking before implementing proxies in your devices is recommended.
FAQs:
1. Which is better, the IPv4 or IPv6 proxy?
IPv4 is the older version, and IPv6 is the newer version with better security and a unique IP address. But almost all electronic devices support IPv4. So, the answer will depend upon the usage; if you are looking for proxies that support most of your devices, go for IPv4. If you are more concerned about the security and number of IP addresses, IPv6 is the best choice.
2. Should I disable IPv6 in my local system?
No. Some of the applications may tend to misbehave and not work as intended. If this is the case, it is recommended to use IPv4 over IPv6 by disabling it altogether.
3. Which is better for gaming, IPv4 or IPv6 proxies?
Compared to IPv4, IPv6 is superior in reducing latency. So, IPv6 is better for gaming and streaming.
Conclusion:
In this article, we have learned more about IPv4 and IPv6 proxy addresses and how they are essential to online communication with other devices. So, which is better, IPv4 or IPv6? IPv6 is a better choice since it is the next version of IPv4. But, the major drawback is that it is not available to many devices. This is where the preference starts. The simple answer is if your device supports an IPv6 address, then IPv6 is the best choice.
