Re: Have you ever disabled IPv6 for privacy (to prevent IP leaks)?

Paul wrote:
>> Q: Have you ever disabled IPv6 for privacy (to prevent IP leaks)? 
>>    What are your experiences?
>> 
> 
> For the average user in this group, doing this is just asking for trouble.
> 
> Make a backup first, OK ?
> 
> *******
> 
> There's no IPV6 in the room, and I didn't have to do a thing.
> And it stays that way, as long as there is no Teredo Tunneling.
> 
> https://whatismyipaddress.com/
> 
>    My IP Address is:
> 
>    IPv4: ? 123.123.123.123       # It's some working value like that
> 
>    IPv6: ? Not detected	         # Strangely, this does not work <snicker>
>                                  # OS is unmodified.
> 
>   Paul


Thanks for the caution where you're absolutely right that disabling IPv6
like I did was just asking for trouble.

In my case, the problem wasn't IPv6 itself, but the way I disabled it. 

Using DisabledComponents = 0xFF completely removed IPv6 routing, IPv6 DNS,
IPv6 fallback paths, and all the internal IPv6 logic Windows relies on. 

But Windows is IPv6-first, even when IPv6 isn't used externally, so
removing it entirely caused NCSI to panic, my routing table to thrash, and
my killswitch toggle to break.

Your setup works because your system still has enough IPv6 internally to
keep Windows stable, even though your ISP doesn't provide IPv6 and your
external tests show "Not detected." 

The important lesson from my mistakes was that the safer method of removing
IPv6 on Windows is 0x20 instead of 0xFF. It keeps IPv6 available internally
for Windows, but disables it externally so privacy leaks aren't possible. 

It's not something most users need, but for people who do care about IPv6
leaks over VPN while torrenting, it's a way to avoid the trap I fell into.

And yes I absolutely agree with you that anyone experimenting with IPv6
settings should make a backup first, me included. I wish I had. 

But I was too confident when I ran these two seemingly simple commands:
 1. This was dangerous... 
    pnputil /remove-device "PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A..."
 2. But this was catastrophic... 
    pnputil /delete-driver netathrx.inf /uninstall /force

Thanks again for the sanity check!
Rufus and MCT are clearly the only solution left to fix it.
-- 
Understanding arrives long after the moment that needed it.