The use of basic Microsoft Windows network testing command line tools (ipconfig, netstat, pathping, ping, route, and tracert) are explained in this article. The use of basic Unix/Linux network testing command line tools (ipconfig, mtr (my traceroute), netstat, pathping, ping, route, and traceroute) are explained in this article.
An extensive collection of tips on how to troubleshoot Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network problems and of websites offering troubleshooting tools are available on the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) IPv6 wiki. Another collection of tips for IPv6 Troubleshooting for Residential ISP Helpdesks is available from the Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE) Network Coordination Centre (NCC). A collection of tools to perform troubleshooting is offered in the SI6 Networks IPv6 toolkit. A tutorial on Tools for Troubleshooting and Monitoring IPv6 Networks is available.
Microsoft offers tips on troubleshooting and testing network problems here, as does the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab here.
More troubleshooting techniques are described in the article Troubleshooting IPv6 Networks and Systems and presentation Troubleshooting Dual-Protocol Networks and Systems by Scott Hogg, who also wrote the article Mobile Apps for Troubleshooting IPv6. Also, Google’s Chrome browser used to be able to perform network troubleshooting, using its Tests tab as described in the IPv6 and Google Chrome article in the Applications section.
To verify that your network services (web, mail, DNS, NTP, and XMPP) are publicly available over IPv6, use the IPv6 Status Check script. IPv6 Status Check script may timeout while checking on the services that are available, if the servers are slow to respond. For an even more comprehensive test of your network services, try the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) Netalyzr java script. (Note: The Netalyzr project ceased operation in Mar, 2019. This copy, archived in Feb, 2019, is still functional.) Another way to thoroughly test the behavior of a website is by customizing the Google Analytics software (registration required) with the IPv6 Capability Tracker developed by the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) Research and Development Labs.
If you need an external IPv6 website to verify basic IPv6 connectivity, try using ipv6.test-ipv6.com or ipv6test.google.com. Other websites and tools include:
- ip6.nl, www.whatismyv6.com, www.ipv6-test.com, ds.testmyipv6.com, and www.test-ipv6.com can be used to test IPv6 connectivity of your own system. (Notes: The www.ipv6-test.com and ready.chair6.net websites can also test IPv6 connectivity to your website. The www.test-ipv6.com website is available via IPv6-only as ipv6.test-ipv6.com and also via IPv4-only as ipv4.test-ipv6.com. The test-ipv6.com websites can also diagnose IPv6 packet fragmentation issues – under the “Tests Run” tab look at the “Test IPv6 large packet” result.)
- ip6.nl (enter a domain name and click on "start") and www.ipv6-test.com/ (click on "Website", enter a domain name and click on "Validate") can be used to test IPv6 connectivity of any website, as can Mozilla FireFox (after installing IPvFoo), Microsoft Edge (after installing and enabling IPvFoo), Opera (after installing IPvFoo), or Google Chrome (after installing IPvFoo). Don't expect these tools to provide identical results: ip6.nl tests the connectivity of a website using the open Internet, while the web browsers test the connectivity of a website using your local infrastructure.
- Network Tools provides useful utilities to test ping, trace, and DNS queries.
- www.ipv6-test.com can be used to test throughput. Commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) often maintain a website to test their own IPv6 throughput. Search for "speed test IPv6 [ISP name]" (without the square brackets) using any web search engine.
- The SMTP Email Test Tool at WebWiz can be used to test an IPv6 Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) server. Other tools are also available.
- Over at the MXToolbox website, the MX Lookup tool can be used to check the configuration of the MX records for your domain. Other tools are also available.
- Over at the EXPERTE website, several tools that can be used to check security features of websites are available, including the DNS Check tool which checks multiple security settings.
- IPv6 Testing Tools from Australia offers links to tools for connectivity, ISP readiness, and Path MTU testing. Other Path MTU tests are Path MTU Detection and MTU Test. Causes of Path MTU errors and additional approaches to dealing with them are described in Section 5.3 of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Information Sharing Platform Laboratories Deploying IPv6: Problems and Solutions published in 2011.
- Tools and techniques for multicast troubleshooting are discussed in the Multicast Troubleshooting topic of the Multicast on IPv6 Networks article in the Infrastructure section.
- High Assurance Domains (HAD) by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) offers links to tools for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC), authenticated e-mail, and DNSSEC testing, among others. Near the top of the HAD web page, click on the Associated Products link.