Installing IPv6 on older Windows versions

Windows 9x

The final version of Trumpet Winsock supports IPv6 on Win9x systems thru it's driver although it's filled with installation process related caveats that might put off the average user, however this shouldn't discourage you from trying :)

There also exists another program called Toolnet6 released by Hitachi, which also provides IPv6 to Win9x (and NT) systems, however it's harder to find and it supports only the NE2000 and the 3Com EtherLink III, It is freeware although it won't be featured in this guide due to it's severe limitations that don't make it viable to work with.

Requirements

• Windows 95 OSR2 or higher
• 16MB of RAM available
• An working internet connection
• TWSK05C5.EXE (Trumpet Winsock 5.0 C5) web.archive.org

Installation Guide

1. Restart your computer and enter the BIOS setup and set the date to any date before 2000, if you are using QEMU, pass -rtc base=YYYY-MM-DD,clock=vm into your launch arguments, make sure to replace YYYY-MM-DD with a date of your choice, and please absolutely make sure that the date doesn't get synced with your host clock or else the timebomb will trigger.
2. Open TWSK05C5.EXE and install the software normally on your system.
3. Navigate to Registration tab on the Trumpet TCP/IP Manager window, this can be found in Trumpet's Tray Icon, otherwise if it doesn't exist try opening it from the Start Menu. And use the following Registration Key: Name: VERSUS Serial: 50E6-4D18-C326-6095-87F3-61C6-7613-A8FF
4. After the registration had been successful, restart your computer again and set the date back to the current date.
5. If the driver hasn't thrown this error message: "Your Demonstration Period Has Expired. Winsock is now unusable." then you have installed it successfully and now you can use IPv6.

Windows 2000

Did you know that Windows 2000 supports IPv6? Well, sort of. It's a "Technology Preview" that has to be manually installed. Installing it however, is comparable to witchcraft. Which is why I've decided to document the process.

What you'll need

• A (virtual) machine running Windows 2000
• tpipv6-001205.exe
  • Download: web.archive.org, repo.julias.zone

How to install it

1. Get the .exe onto your Windows 2000 machine, I like using genisoimage
2. Run tpipv6-001205.exe and follow the extractor, simply choose C:\IPv6Kit
3. Navigate to the destination directory

As-is, the setup.exe is made for Service Pack 1. See below on how to hot-fix it for each service pack.

Service Pack 4

1. Grab a cmd.exe and cd to the directory
2. Run setup.exe -x, append something like \files to the path
3. Now you can close cmd.exe and navigate to the second directory
4. Here you will want to change "NTServicePackVersion=256" to "NTServicePackVersion=1024"
5. Now you can run hotfix.exe. It will install the pack and reboot your machine.
6. Open "Control Panel", navigate to "Network and Dial-up Connections", "Local Area Connection" (if the latter is not visible, it's possible that your NIC is not recognized. If using QEMU, try "rtl8139")
7. Go to "Properties", "Install", "Protocol", "Microsoft IPv6 Protocol"

Your Windows 2000 machine now supports the current Internet Protocol, version 6. Enjoy surfing!

Postscripts

• This process added the "ipv6" command. Feel free to play around with it a little.
• In order to ping an IPv6 address, use the "ping6" command, same is with "tracert6".

To be done

• Scour the internet for possible newer versions of tpipv6
• Simplify the process, clean up the page
• Document installation process for other Service Packs
• Providing hot-fixed versions for each service pack, so the install process is less complex.
• Possibly writing a script that automates the install and enables it?
• Maybe provide some screenshots or screen recordings
• Documenting other Windows versions
• The source code is available. Maybe link it or do something with it?