The Public IP Address Associated with a Cloud VPS
The Public IP of a Cloud VPS
The public IP address associated with a Cloud VPS allows the server to be reachable from the Internet. A Cloud VPS with a public IP has direct access to the network and benefits from high connection speeds, limited only by the bandwidth capabilities of the network interface.
With the SeFlow Cloud VPS service, each VPS includes at least one public IP address, already provisioned and configured by the platform. The public IP allows you to connect to your Cloud VPS using:
- RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) for Windows systems;
- SSH (Secure Shell) for Linux systems.
IPv6
IPv6 is the next-generation Internet addressing protocol, designed to overcome the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.
The continuous growth of connected devices (PCs, laptops, phones, smart TVs, VoIP devices, IoT systems, etc.) has led to the saturation of publicly available IPv4 addresses. For this reason, IPv6 was introduced, providing an almost unlimited pool of addresses.
Differences Between IPv4 and IPv6
IPv4 and IPv6 are both Internet addressing protocols, but they differ in format, size, and address capacity.
| Feature | IPv4 | IPv6 |
|---|---|---|
| Address Length | 32 bits | 128 bits |
| Format | 4 decimal groups (0–255) separated by dots Example: 62.149.188.210 |
8 groups of 4 hexadecimal digits (0–9, a–f) separated by colons Example: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:1319:8a2e:0370:7344 |
| Number of Addresses | About 4.3 billion addresses (2^32) |
About 3.4 × 1038 addresses (2^128)Equivalent to hundreds of billions of billions of billions of billions of unique addresses. |
Advantages of IPv6
IPv6 provides several advantages over IPv4:
- Massive address space: allows unique addressing of virtually unlimited devices.
- Reduced dependency on NAT: every device can have its own public address, improving end-to-end connectivity.
- Built-in security: IPsec support is mandatory in IPv6, whereas it is optional in IPv4.
- More efficient routing and network handling, especially on large-scale networks.
IPv6 Syntax Rules
When writing an IPv6 address, there are several rules to follow:
- Lowercase letters: hexadecimal digits (a–f) should be written in lowercase.
- Zero compression: a group of four zeros can be reduced to
0:2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7344
becomes2001:0db8:85a3:0:0:8a2e:0370:7344 ::substitution for a sequence of two or more zero groups:2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7344
becomes2001:0db8:85a3::8a2e:0370:7344- Single
::allowed: it can appear only once in an address.
Invalid example:2001::85a3::0370:7344 - Leading zeros omitted:
2001:0db8:85a3:70aa:0101:1000:8a2e:0370
can be written as2001:db8:85a3:70aa:101:1000:8a2e:370 - Last 32 bits may be written in IPv4 format:
2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7344
can be written as2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:3.112.115.68
Transition from IPv4 to IPv6
The global transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is gradual. To ensure compatibility, many providers adopt dual-stack configurations, supporting both protocols simultaneously.
In Cloud VPS environments, it is therefore common to have:
- one IPv4 public address;
- one or more IPv6 addresses associated with the same machine.
Converting IPv4 to IPv6
In some scenarios, it may be useful to represent an IPv4 address inside an IPv6 address. This is done by converting the four decimal blocks of the IPv4 into hexadecimal.
Example IPv4:
62.149.188.210
Convert each decimal block into hexadecimal:
62→3e149→95188→bc210→d2
The combination becomes: 3e95:bcd2
This IPv4 can be represented in IPv6 in the IPv4-compatible format:
0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:ffff:3e95:bcd2
which can also be written in compressed form as:
::ffff:3e95:bcd2
