IPv6 enabled for new sites by default (and eventually for older sites, too)

We’ve supported IPv6 on customer websites for many years, but it didn’t default to “on”: customers had to explicitly enable it in our account management control panel.

Starting today, IPv6 is on by default for all new accounts signed up with us (although you can turn it off if you want).

In addition, we’re beginning a gradual process of slowly enabling IPv6 for existing sites if they haven’t chosen to disable it. If you don’t want IPv6 to be enabled for your site in the future, you should use our control panel to disable it.

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is a more efficient and modern way for computers to make Internet connections. Most large sites on the Internet use IPv6. Our IPv6 help page explains a lot more about it.

Why should IPv6 be enabled by default?

When IPv6 is enabled, we tell the rest of the Internet that computers should make an IPv6 connection to your site if they’re able to do so, and make an IPv4 connection if not. Most browsers these days will actually try both methods if one fails, so connections to your site are more likely to work if you have IPv6 enabled.

Can enabling IPv6 cause problems?

Enabling IPv6 makes most sites more reliable by giving computers two paths to connect. That said, some very old scripts for websites don’t work well with IPv6. Also, a small number of computer connections can be broken in such a way that they take longer or fail completely when connecting to IPv6 addresses, although this is rare nowadays (see Wikipedia, “As of 2017, IPv6 brokenness is now generally regarded as a non-problem”) and people with that problem will likely have difficulty connecting to other sites, too.

However, customers can disable IPv6 for their site if they wish — it’s up to you. (Alternately, you can contact us and ask to ensure that IPv6 is disabled for your site.)