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Troubleshooting: Setting Up and Using the IPv6 Test Lab (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)

  • Article

1/6/2010

When building the IPv6 test lab, you may experience difficulty when doing the builds in the following areas:

  • Expanding an IPv6 Address
  • Converting Decimal to Hexadecimal
  • Setting up a Hosts File
  • Troubleshooting Build Problems

Expanding an IPv6 Address

IPv6 addresses are typically compressed, with non-placeholder zeros removed. To expand the address, you must add the zeros, as shown in bold in the following example:

  • IPv6 compressed address: 2000:::f1b3:240:5ff:fe70:2628
  • IPv6 expanded address: 2000:0000:0000:f1b3:0240:05ff:fe70:2628

Converting Decimal to Hexadecimal

You can convert decimal to hexadecimal by using the calculator on your development system. For example, if the IPv4 address is 10.0.3.2, you would perform the following steps:

  1. Expand the Scope ID or IPv4 address to 4 bytes, and then separate on byte boundaries. For example:
    • Scope ID 1 becomes 01 00 00 00
    • IPv4 address 10.0.3.2 becomes 10 00 03 02
  2. Open the calculator.
  3. On the View menu, choose Scientific.
  4. Convert each byte as follows:
    1. Choose the Dec radio button for decimal.
    2. Type the byte that you want to convert.
    3. Choose the Hex radio button.
      The byte is converted to a hexadecimal value.

When you use the hexadecimal value, make sure you enter leading zeros if needed. For example, if you converted "10" decimal to "A", you would type "0A" as the address or Scope ID.

For more information, see IPv6 Addresses.

Setting up a Hosts File

Some networks dynamically provide IP addresses for networked computers and provide server information for Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) and Domain Name System (DNS), among others. This is usually accomplished using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DCHP). In statically configured networks, IP addresses are permanently assigned to computers and rarely change.

On Windows Embedded CE, you can create a network environment without using a DNS server, provide registration services, or query WINS servers. You do this by using a local Hosts file that associates the host name with the static IP addresses. The Hosts file is set up in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMM\<TCPIPv4 or TCPIPv6>\Hosts.

For information about setting up a Hosts file, see TCP/IPv4 Configurable Registry Settings or TCP/IPv6 Configurable Registry Settings.

Troubleshooting Build Problems

When building operating systems to use in the IPv6 test network devices, you use design templates to create predefined OS designs, and then add information to either the Hosts file or the Project.reg file. Most likely, problems in the build are a result of an error in the information that you entered.

Verify the following in the information that you typed:

  • The information matches the examples provided in the documentation.
  • Every beginning quote has an associated end quote.
  • The information identified by angle brackets has been replaced with information specific to your network. For example, <CLIENT2 IPv6 address> is replaced by the actual hexadecimal IPv6 address for CLIENT2.
  • You changed the "x" in the network card interface name to a whole number. The following example shows how you would interpret the documentation if your device has an NE2000 compatible PCI card and a Microsoft Virtual Miniport driver network card. The respective interface names are PCI\NE2000x and VMINIx.
    If the documentation says:
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\<Private Network Interface Name (Adapter 1)>\Parms\Tcpip]
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\<Public Network Interface Name (Adapter 2)>\Parms\Tcpip]
    You type:
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\PCI\NE20001\Parms\Tcpip]
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\VMINI1\Parms\Tcpip]
    The following example shows how you would type the information if your device has two NE2000 compatible PCI cards. The interface names are both PCI\NE2000x.
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\PCI\NE20001\Parms\Tcpip]
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\PCI\NE20002\Parms\Tcpip]

For information about network cards and interface names, see Configuring the Gateway Registry.

See Also

Concepts

How to Set Up and Use an IPv6 Test Lab
Diagnosing Connections