Internet Protocol Version 6

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the foundation upon which all Internet traffic is based. The current version, Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), has remained unchanged for over two decades. While this is a testament to its original design, no one ever envisioned the unprecedented growth the Internet has seen. The demand for unique addresses used to route traffic through this network has grown so large that many are predicting the supply will be exhausted in a few short years. Technologies such as Network Address Translation (NAT) have only marginally extended the IPv4 lifetime at the cost of end-to-end connectivity for many applications such as games. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the next generation networking protocol designed to address this and many other concerns.

The Microsoft?DirectPlay? Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) service provider supports both IPv4 and IPv6 transparently. This ensures that the application you write today will automatically take advantage of the IPv6 features as its adoption becomes more widespread. The only behavior required of your application is that it should treat the value of the DPNA_KEY_HOSTNAME address component returned by DirectPlay as a string. Your application should not expect it to be in an IPv4 address, formatted using decimal dotted notation. The DPNA_KEY_HOSTNAME component can be an IPv4 address, an IPv6 address, or a Domain Name System (DNS) hostname string. You should simply display DPNA_KEY_HOSTNAME as a string without parsing. Alternatively, use match-making services or friendly player names to hide the address complexity from the user altogether.

For more information about creating TCP/IP protocol DirectPlay addresses, see Creating TCP/IP Address Objects. For more information about match-making services, see DirectPlay Lobby.