IPv4 + IPv6 NAT64 Information and Setup Guide

Hope that you enjoy this guide on Nat64 and how to set it up!How can you access an IPv4 ONLY Website from an IPv6 ONLY Host?Technically, IPv6 and IPv4 are two different and incompatible protocols. IPv6 ONLY machines can speak IPv6 language and IPv4 ONLY machines know only the IPv4 language.How do they talk to each other? We need to setup NAT64 or a DNS64 gateway in between an IPv6 ONLY host and IPv4 ONLY website. What's a NAT64 Gateway?NAT64 is a gateway service that allows IPv6 ONLY host to access IPv4 ONLY websites. To explain how NAT64 works, you'll have to think of two different components - a DNS Resolver and a Gateway.From the diagram above, you'll see and recognize that NAT64 consists of two main components - the DNS Resolver that serves IPv6 addresses for IPv4 only websites. The Gateway module takes care of mapping those IPv6 addresses back to IPv4.For example, when going to an IPv4-based website address from an IPv6 machine or going to an IPv6 based website address from an IPv4 machine, it will be ignored when requesting an IPv4 website from an IPv4-based machine or requesting an IPv6-website from an IPv6 based machine. Set Up NAT64Use the addresses below and set them in your DNS Resolvers.For example, edit /etc/resolv.conf  in Linux-based machines.The Google Public DNS IP addresses (IPv4) are as follows:8.8.8.88.8.4.4The Google Public DNS IPv6 addresses are as follows:2001:4860:4860::88882001:4860:4860::8844Some devices use separate fields for all eight parts of IPv6 addresses and cannot accept the :: IPv6 abbreviation syntax. For such fields, enter:2001:4860:4860:0:0:0:0:88882001:4860:4860:0:0:0:0:8844Expand the 0 entries to 0000 if four hex digits are required.On a Windows machine, change IPv6 properties as shown in the below image:You can use either address as your primary or secondary DNS server. You can specify both addresses, but do not specify the same address as both primary and secondary.You can configure the Google Public DNS addresses for either IPv4 or IPv6 connections, or both. For IPv6-only networks with a NAT64 gateway using the 64:ff9b::/96 prefix, you can use Google Public DNS64 instead of Google Public DNS IPv6 addresses, providing connectivity to IPv4-only services without any other configuration.Configuring Google Public DNS64Replace the standard resolver addresses with the following:2001:4860:4860::64642001:4860:4860::64Do not configure any other IPv6 addresses. Doing so makes DNS64 unreliable. If you also configure Google Public DNS IPv4 addresses (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4), dual-stack hosts may not get synthesized - AAAA records sometimes.Some devices use separate fields for all eight parts of the IPv6 addresses and cannot accept the :: IPv6 abbreviation syntax. For such fields enter:2001:4860:4860:0:0:0:0:64642001:4860:4860:0:0:0:0:64Expand the 0 entries to 0000 and the 64 entry to 0064 if four hex digits are required. Test the NAT64 Set UpMove to your terminal or command prompt and traceroute to an IPv4-only domain from an IPv6 only host.Example traceroute:In the below traceroute, you’ll see the fragmented packets and ping times. You'll also notice the traceroutes start with an IPv6 address and then end up in an IPv4 network. Thanks and please post any questions or comments below.