Occasionally, IPv6 can cause conflicts with some network services. The following article will show how to disable IPv6 for the major operating systems.

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Windows XP and Greater

Microsoft has dedicated tools to quickly enable and disable iPv6 on interfaces.

• Click here to open the help article.
  
  
• Select the Download option under Disable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces.
  
  
  
  
• Run the file and follow the on screen instructions. 
  
  
• When the process is finished, reboot your machine to finalize the changes. 
  
  
• If you need to re-enable IPv6, simply follow the link and download the tool Re-enable IPv6 on all nontunnel interfaces and then reboot your pc.

 

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Mac OSX

• Open a terminal.
  
  
  • A terminal can be opened by pressing ⌘(Command)+Spacebar, typing "terminal", then hitting enter.
    
    
• In the open terminal, enter the following command:
  
  
  • If you are using WiFi:
    
    networksetup -setv6off Wi-Fi 
    
    
  • If you are using Ethernet:
    
    networksetup -setv6off Ethernet 
    
    
• Close the Terminal, then click the Apple icon in the top left of the screen.
  
  
• Select System Preferences from the dropdown.
  
  
• Double click on Network.
  
  
• Select the currently connected network from the list. 
  
  
• Click Advanced.
  
  
  
  
• From the menu tabs at the top, select TCP/IP.
  
  
  
  
• Open the dropdown on Configure IPv6 and select Off from the list.
  
  
  
  
• Hit Ok. IPv6 should now be disabled.

 

Note: To re-enable IPv6:

• Open a Terminal and type in the following command:
  
  
  • If you are using WiFi:
    
    networksetup -setv6automatic Wi-Fi 
    
    
  • If you are using Ethernet:
    
    networksetup -setv6automatic Ethernet 
    
    
• Follow the above steps to open Network Preferences and ensure that the Configure IPv6 dropdown is set to Automatically.

 

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Linux Ubuntu

• Check IPv6 is enabled by opening a terminal and entering the following command:
  
  ip a
  
  
• If you see an inet6 address, this means IPv6 is enabled. Enter the following three commands:
  
  sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6=1
  
  
• Check that the disabling has worked by using the previous command and looking for an inet6 address.

Note: This only disables IPv6 for the current session. When you reboot, these changes will be reverted. To make them permanent:

• Edit /etc/sysctl.conf with administrative access in your text editor of choice, IE Vim or Nano
  
  
• Add the following lines to the end of the file:
  
  net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1

net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1

net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6=1
  
  
• Save the file and exit back to terminal
  
  
• Use the following command to reload the file you just edited:
  
  sudo sysctl -p

To re-enable IPv6 simply edit /etc/sysctl.conf, remove the added lines, and then reboot your machine.