One problem when using a VPN (virtual private network) is IP address leaks. This is especially the case with IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6).
What does that mean for you? Your private information (IPv6 address and location) may be leaking out online while you assume your VPN is keeping you safe. But before we dig into the details of the IPv6 VPN problem, let’s quickly cover some basics.
What is IPv4 and IPv6?
Every device that connects to the internet has a unique IP (Internet Protocol) address. This address can be used to identify your specific device and geographic location. An IPv4 address is an IP address system that utilizes a 32-bit decimal number (like this: 192.0.2.235). But because we’re rapidly running out of IPv4 addresses with more devices connecting to the internet, the transition to IPv6 is quickly underway.
An IPv6 address is the updated IP address system, which uses a longer 128-bit version – thereby significantly increasing the number of IP addresses available. It looks like this: 2001:0db8:0000:0042:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 that is currently underway creates a big problem for most VPN services.
IPv6 VPN Problems
Most VPNs have been slow to accommodate this transition to IPv6 and update their server networks. Of course, upgrading servers to support IPv6 is an expensive and difficult fix. Most VPNs would rather focus their resources on marketing, rather than provide their users with good quality servers that support IPv6.
That’s why when you’re looking for VPN service, always dig into the details on their servers. Most importantly, try to find a server status page that provides real-time bandwidth information. Here’s an example from Perfect Privacy:
A good server status page will show you:
- All server locations and how many servers are online
- Real-time bandwidth statistics
- Which servers support IPv6
Getting this information is important, because of how it affects the performance of the VPN. With so many providers over-selling their VPN service, VPN servers are often overloaded with users. This means slow speeds, dropped connections, and bad reliability for their users.
Is my IPv6 address safe with a VPN?
The short answer is probably not – especially if you’re using a cheap VPN. One study found that 84% of Android VPN apps will leak your real IP address. This massive problem leaves millions exposed, and is further explained on the VPN Warning List, which contains a big list of VPN providers with privacy/security concerns.
What should you do? First, check to see if your IPv6 address is exposed by using this IP address check tool. If you see a long IPv6 address and it’s not coming from your VPN provider, then you have an IPv6 address leak. (You should also run a DNS leak test too, but that’s a topic for another article.)
Don’t trust your VPN without testing the features.
VPN IPv6 Solutions
The best solution is to utilize a VPN service that supports both IPv4 and IPv6 on their VPN server network. As we’ve already discussed, very few VPNs offer this solution.
One recommendation is Perfect Privacy which will provide you with a dual stack VPN – both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
When you check your IP address while connected to a Perfect Privacy VPN server, you’ll see something like this:
If you want to test your VPN for IPv6 leaks and other problems, check out the VPN Test guide.
If you want to get a VPN that supports both IPv4 and IPv6, check out Perfect Privacy.
To see a list of VPNs that were tested and found to keep both IPv4 and IPv6 secure (no IP address leaks), see the Best VPN List.
I just had Comcast break off their deal with Norton/Lifelock and since I wanted to keep Norton and my wife and I discussed Lifelock and decided to take their “special deal” as ex-Comcast users, I found myself with a Norton350/Lifelock/VPN package.
I used whatismyipaddress.com to see what my IP was to the outside world and found to my surprise that the V6 IP is the same for VPN on and VPN off. Only the V4 IP changes.
Then I found your site when I searched for “Does Norton VPN support IPV6.
Norton support says “Norton Core currently does not support IPv6. We have plans to add support for IPv6 in the future. Please revisit this page for updates on Norton Core support for IPv6.”
Wow, that’s really bad. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This means that the VPN is basically useless with your IPv6 addressed exposed with everything you do online. Most VPNs either block IPv6 or support it, not just leave it exposed like Norton.
Hi Sven,
I’m shopping for a new VPN and noting areas to pay attention of today. One area that can’t be to far off as in finding some future-proofing going on is with the IPv6 addresses. Excerpts as you’ve stated here and there on your site:
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IPv6 support: Perfect Privacy is one of the few VPNs offering full IPv6 support (you get both an IPv4 and IPv6 address) – The best solution is to utilize a VPN service that supports both IPv4 and IPv6 on their VPN server network, very few VPNs offer this solution.
To see a list of VPNs that were tested and found to keep both IPv4 and IPv6 secure (no IP address leaks), see the Best VPN List.
Passed all tests with no leaks found whatsoever (no IP address leaks or DNS leaks)(no IP address leaks)
https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn/best/
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Ranking criteria – 2. Passed all tests with no leaks found whatsoever (no IP address leaks or DNS leaks).
– I don’t see any VPN being specifically called out for this IPv6 secure feature (IPv6 support) other than Perfect Privacy.
So without IPv6 support offered how does the 6 listed of this seven pass the IPv6 leakage tests…
So is Perfect Privacy the only one to offer IPv6 support?
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Being a bit picky (so forgive me), the prices stated on your site for what I’ve noticed in ‘Secure Email’ and ‘VPN’s’ are seemingly special and/or in ways not associated with the everyday price one will find in their pricing schedule.
Meaning – minimum account storage allotments or multiple year subscription terms – as a few points reflecting lower monthly pricing.
Wouldn’t it be better to add something such ‘as low as’ or other disclaimers that the prices stated here are for a (low tier) bare account’s setup.
EX: on Tutanota you have (Storage Up to 20 GB) with the pricing shown as (Price/Month €1.00*) *Free tier: Up to 1GB
*** NO understanding of the 20GB relationship to the Price/Month of €1.00*, or what the Price/Month €1.00* gets you in meaningful account storage.
Thank you – Sir
PS:
It’s interesting, you can bring the cost within $0.63 a month of each others service (Perfect Privacy – ExpressVPN).
Granted – – one is a 12 month ExpressVPN term and the other needs to be a 24 month Perfect Privacy term – to close the cost gap within $0.63 a month of each VPN service.
With price, I show the cheapest paid plan, but with email storage, I list the max possible, so they are not correlated with each other.
Thank you, That sounds promising.
It is exactly the problem they write about, (although they emphasize more the problem of inbound traffic, btw. that’s also an issue for me). So I’ll give it a try with them.
My provider’s NAT server (even without the bottleneck) inserts its delay anyyway into all my IPv4 traffic, so the overall compare regarding the speed might have a little less handicap for the VPN solution.
I will have it at least as a backup for the congested periods, and also on the plus-side is the extra privacy of course.
Thank you again.
Hi Sven,
Could you please clarify if the ‘IPv6 service’ of these providers concerns their outgoing traffic only, or the connection between my machine and the VPN server can also be forced to use IPv6 only?
The problem I would like to solve is not just concerning the IPv6 leaks but the following:
Some months ago my Internet provider moved me to a so-called DS-Lite (Dualstack-Lite) service. This means I have a quasi-permanent public IPv6 address now, but I have no own public IPv4 address any more.
When I visit IPv4 sites (and most of the websites are still IPv4) all my traffic goes thru the provider’s NAT Server that apparently gets congested very often, so sometimes I get very poor IPv4 service (up to total packet losts). There is no problem with the IPv6 traffic at the same time which is apparently not routed thru their NAT Servers.
My plan is to connect to the VPN server via IPv6 (to avoid my provider’s NAT Server) and from there have a more reliable IPv4 service (and IPv6 also).
Hi Bela. I found this on the Perfect Privacy IPv6 page:
So if you were connected to a Perfect Privacy VPN server, your traffic would be fully encrypted between your computer and the VPN server, and therefore bypass the NAT processing completely (congestion problems). This should improve speed and reliability – but I can’t say for certain.