Why is my IPv6 Address showing instead of my IPv4?

Question

I am wanting to host a server, and I would like people to join through my IPv4 Address, but when I use ipconfig in the Command Prompt, I only get my IPv4 Address, and when I google "What is my IP" I get the IPv6 Address. I do not understand a whole lot about networking. I've tried disabling the IPv6 protocol and my server would not start when I set the IP as my IPv4 Address and I'm not sure why. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Solution

Why is my IPv6 Address showing instead of my IPv4?

The real short answer is because and IP v6 address is an IP address and the website you used shows the actually used IP address.

That answers the question in the title, now moving on to what you really wanted answered.

First, unless you were really early on the Internet or made significsant effort you probably do not have a dedicated IP or even an IP range. Yet this is the normal way of working for Internet connected computers.

We ran out of IP (v4) addresses to allovcate though and therefor many ISPs use an ugly hack called NAT. This means that you get one IP assigned you the outside NIC of your modem. I am assuming that this is the IP you are looking for.

Now in the last few decades a few things have changed:

• IP v6 has emerged to replace IP v4. We should all use that instead.
  But...not all early network systems worked well yet. Adaption was slow.So most people still got IP v4 only.
• Since then things have evolved. IPv6 is stable, mature, well supported and the default on many operating systems. This may include your [ISP provided] modem.
  That means that while you may disable it on your local part of the network it may still be the preferred IP on the outside of the modem.

All of this means that it is quite possible to use IP v4 locally, connect to your modem, and still enter the Internet with an IPv6 address.

Now if you want to confirm or deny this you might want to check the network configuration of not only the local network, but also log into your modem and check its settings.

Lastly, there is also something called carrier grade NAT. And that would mean that you do not get a routable IP v4 address. And the 'outside' part of that cg NAT might well be IPv6.

This is where I'll stop. Without more information it gets becomes a lot of gambling. Please check your modem and add its configuration to your post using the edit function.

Comments

[Julie Pelletier]

Do you use a domain name? If so, does it have both A and AAAA records? What server is it? Is it set to listen on both interfaces? Is your router redirecting IPv4 traffic to your server or just IPv6?

[prateek61]

Is your server directly connected to the Internet (i.e. you have a public IP address on your server) or are you connecting via another (dual stacked) gateway?

[Michael Hampton]

You can use a "my ip address" service that shows you both of your IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, such as my own myip.addr.space