UPDATE Sky Broadband Push Router Firmware Update with IPv6 Support

Customers of Sky Broadband have informed us that the ISP is pushing out a new firmware update for their “Sky Hub” SR101 broadband routers, which appears to finally add support for the new “new” IPv6 Internet addressing standard that Sky plan to trial.

At present all of the big broadband ISPs still assign an IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) address to your connection each time you go online, which looks a bit like this – 84.123.12.5 (yours will have a different number). It’s kind of like the Internet equivalent of a phone number, which helps your hardware and software to communicate with remote servers.

However only a couple of years ago you couldn’t escape the news of how the IPv4 standard was running out of addresses and this would eventually make it impossible for ISPs to add new customers without upgrading to IPv6 (related addresses look a bit like this: 2001:cdba::2257:9652) or sharing IPv4 addresses between several users.

However most of the major ISPs have a big stockpile of spare IPv4s and so the need to rush towards adoption was reduced. On top of that the hardware and software support (e.g. home routers) was also very limited. Since then IPv4 addresses have continued to dry up around the world, although hardware support has improved markedly.

As such it came as a pleasant surprise when Sky Broadband confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk in April 2015 that they planned to conduct the first large-scale customer trial of IPv6 in the United Kingdom (here). At the time Sky said that this would focus on customers who take their standard (ADSL) Unlimited or Lite Broadband packages and who currently use one of their Sagem routers.

Never the less we’re now receiving reports that some owners of the SkyHub SR101 and possibly also SR102 (same as the SR101 + FTTC / VDSL integrated) routers have this week begun to receive a new firmware update (v3.45.1133.R) which, aside from introducing a few other features and tweaking the user interface, also appears to now list IPv6 on the Diagnostics page and adds some related LAN network options.

The trial itself is due to be expanded over the course of the coming months, although we note that some of those receiving the update do not currently appear to have requested a place on the trial. The version number will also represent quite a jump for some SR101 owners, which would previously have been on v1.15m.3734.R or later.

We have asked Sky to clarify precisely what new features are being added by the firmware and whether it is being applied to all of their customer base or only a select group. At the time of writing most people have not yet received the update, although those that have often also report a brief disruption to their connectivity as the router reboots itself.

UPDATE 17th June 2015

After a bit of prodding it’s been confirmed that the new firmware update, which contains some general bug fixes and improvements as well as support for IPv6, will indeed be rolling out across Sky Broadband’s customer base in the coming weeks (i.e. not just those on the IPv6 trial).

But only those selected by Sky to take part in the their IPv6 trials will benefit from the related features (naturally), although we understand that IPv6 is planned to start rolling out across their customer base once the trials have been successfully completed (no ETA for that yet, the trials are only just getting underway now)