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When I use the the tracert command in Windows cmd, for example with google.com, it shows a familiar IP address. But when I use it with the name of a computer on the same network it shows me a long unfamiliar code of the following pattern:

[XX##::####:X##X:X#XX:###X]

The characters X and # represent a letter and a number, respectively.

Can anyone tell me what this means?

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  • You are asking us to guess what the error message is and then explain what it means. How are we supposed to do that? Jan 27, 2016 at 15:19
  • @ChrisInEdmonton I censored that code because out of security i'm not sure Jan 27, 2016 at 15:21

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This is an IP V6 address. They are expressed in Hexidecimal notation, using number 0-9 and letters a-f to represent numbers between 0 and 15. IP v6 addresses are 128 bits long (v4 addrs are only 32bit) so they are much longer.

In Tracert (on modern IPv6 capable windows OSs), you can specify the IP protocol you want to use with the -4 and -6 switches:

tracert -4 remoteHostName

This should express IPs in the more familiar dotted decimal standard used in IP v4 addressing. Note that the IP version switches do not exist in older versions of windows, because IPv6 support was not native at that time.

Also, if you want to know why Google responds in IPv4 without a switch on the command, its because your router and/or ISP equipment are not configured to pass IPv6 traffic. Most ISPs are not yet fully IPv6 capable, so IPv4 is used automatically. Your LAN workstations however have no such limitation.

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  • well, that worked! thanks! i'll remember this one! thanks! Jan 27, 2016 at 16:07

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