Networking
Core Networkist
Mastering the '::' Shorthand in IPv6
A guide to reading and writing canonical IPv6 addresses with confidence.
Deciphering IPv6 Shorthand
IPv6 addresses are long. To make them manageable, we use the "::" shorthand to represent long strings of zeros.
The One Golden Rule
You can only use "::" once in any given IPv6 address. Otherwise, the router wouldn't know how many zeros to re-expand in each section.
How-To: Use the Calculator
Input an expanded address into our IP Calculator to see it instantly compressed into its canonical (shorthand) form.