AFRINIC’s IPv6 monitor now shows the network behind a green result

NIST’s worked example compares the transfer rate of one US government homepage over IPv4 and IPv6 from November 2013 to February 2014. It illustrates NIST’s method. AFRINIC’s 2026 results come from a separate monitor. Graphic by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), IPv6 Service Deployment Monitor. Original PNG unchanged. Original figure · NIST methods · Use terms.

A green result on an IPv6 dashboard can tell you that a service answered. When you need to fix it, the next question is who carries that connection. AFRINIC’s 5 November update makes the announcing network visible beside the addresses in a domain’s detail. That gives a site team one more clue about which part of its setup to investigate.

Start with the service and the network

AFRINIC’s Africa IPv6 & DNSSEC Deployment Monitor separates the checks for web, mail and DNS, the system that resolves domain names. In the 2.20.0 release notes, AFRINIC says each service detail now has an IPv6 network column. A table underneath connects the addresses it found with the servers and the networks announcing them. The address announcement tells other networks how to route traffic towards those addresses. AFRINIC release history.

Read that network beside the hostname. The monitor explains that its location column uses the server’s name. An address with a name under the organisation’s own domain can be announced by a service provider. For a support ticket, write down the affected service, hostname, network shown and scan date. Check your hosting arrangements to find out who can make a change.

The same release corrected a label for domains without a mail server so those rows show N/A. Where a server is present, AFRINIC’s test checks whether it accepts an IPv6 connection on port 25 within three seconds. The probe stops at the connection. A site team investigating delivery still needs evidence from its mail provider. AFRINIC’s mail-check note.

The separate 2.19.0 release on 5 November adds an Others filter for a sample of popular local sites. The release history includes Kenya and Nigeria among the first countries and says that these sites stay outside the main government and university figures. Use the filter for a specific site or sample. Keep that comparison separate from any national adoption figure. Kenya monitor · Nigeria monitor.

What a service measurement looks like

AFRINIC names the US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s USGv6 method as its starting point. NIST distinguishes an IPv6 address in the records, an address that answers a network reachability check and a service that actually responds over IPv6. A server that ignores a ping can still answer a service request. The cover is NIST’s historical worked example for one US government homepage. The red and blue traces show its IPv4 and IPv6 transfer-rate readings from November 2013 to February 2014 on a logarithmic scale. A vertical step represents a ratio rather than a fixed number of megabits per second. NIST method and graph.

The two traces let you compare what happened during those particular requests. To identify the network carrying a monitored address, turn back to AFRINIC’s new detail. Those two records answer different questions. The archival chart gives no current reading for Kenya, Nigeria or the US.

Then check the end-user question separately

AFRINIC’s End User Adoption tab cites APNIC Labs. APNIC distinguishes tested clients that can retrieve an IPv6-only web object from those that use IPv6 when the object is also available over IPv4. A useful handover for a website team in Nairobi or Lagos, or for its UK hosting support, can list three separate observations. Record whether the service answered, which network the monitor showed and whether there is evidence about the affected users’ connections. APNIC measurement method · Read PING’s African last-mile guide.