The output of the IPv6 Route Table differs in column headings and format due to the longer IPv6 addresses.
The IPv6 Route Table section displays four columns which identify:
- If - Lists the interface numbers from the Interface List section of the netstat –r command. The interface numbers correspond to the network capable interface on the host, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth adapters.
- Metric - Lists the cost of each route to a destination. Lower numbers indicate preferred routes.
- Network Destination - Lists the reachable networks.
- Gateway - Lists the address used by the local host to forward packets to a remote network destination. On-link indicates that the host is currently connected to it.
For example, the figure displays the IPv6 Route section generated by the netstat –r command to reveal the following network destinations:
- ::/0 - This is the IPv6 equivalent of the local default route.
- ::1/128 - This is equivalent to the IPv4 loopback address and provides services to the local host.
- 2001::/32 - This is the global unicast network prefix.
- 2001:0:9d38:953c:2c30:3071:e718:a926/128 - This is the global unicast IPv6 address of the local computer.
- fe80::/64 - This is the local link network route address and represents all computers on the local link IPv6 network.
- fe80::2c30:3071:e718:a926/128 - This is the link local IPv6 address of the local computer.
- ff00::/8 - These are special reserved multicast class D addresses equivalent to the IPv4 224.x.x.x addresses.
Note: Interfaces in IPv6 commonly have two IPv6 addresses: a link local address and a global unicast address. Also, notice that there are no broadcast addresses in IPv6.