ping6.it is a small web UI that runs the same network measurement over IPv4 and IPv6 on the same set of probes and presents a side-by-side comparison.

It is intended for quick, reproducible v4 vs v6 troubleshooting: reachability gaps, latency deltas, loss anomalies, and routing/path asymmetries.

ping6.it supports two measurement backends:

• Globalping (default) for fast, lightweight measurements.
• RIPE Atlas (experimental) for broader probe availability (requires an API key and currently supports fewer commands).

Experimental beta: defaults, UI layout, and comparison logic may evolve.

Live: https://ping6.it Feedback: mailto:[email protected]

• Fair v4/v6 comparison by pinning both runs to the same probes
• Backends: Globalping (default) and RIPE Atlas (experimental)
• Commands: ping, traceroute, mtr, dns, http (Atlas: ping/traceroute/dns only)
• Geo selection (macro region + sub-regions) and Net filter (eyeball/datacenter, Globalping only)
• Probe filters: limit, ASN, IPv6-capable probes only
  • ISP filter is best-effort and not guaranteed by upstream metadata; prefer ASN
• Multi-target mode (run the same command over multiple targets)
• Per-probe tables (sortable) + summary stats (medians/p95 and deltas)
• ASN details: click an ASN to open an in-app panel with RIPEstat data (including a RPKI validity breakdown)
• Exports: JSON (raw bundle) and CSV (per-probe rows)
• Share link (settings) and Report mode (shareable link embedding results)
• History (local) stored in your browser (and run-to-run comparison)

• What ping6.it is for
• Backends
• How the v4v6 comparison works
  • Globalping backend
  • RIPE Atlas backend
  • Target validation
• Common controls
• Commands
  • ping
  • traceroute
  • mtr
  • dns
  • http
• ASN details
• Interpreting results
• API endpoints
• Limitations and notes
• Development
  • Cloudflare Pages configuration
• Contributing
• Security
• Acknowledgements
• License

Typical use cases:

• “IPv6 is slow” → quantify deltas and see where they appear
• “IPv6 fails but IPv4 works” → validate reachability by region / eyeball vs DC
• Resolver differences (DNS) and handshake/transfer timing differences (HTTP)
• Path asymmetry hints (traceroute / mtr), including loss patterns

The goal is not to be a full monitoring suite, but a fast comparison UI with reproducible runs.

Globalping provides a distributed probe network and an API for measurements. ping6.it uses Globalping for:

• Fast pair creation (v4 + v6) with streaming updates.
• ping, traceroute, mtr, dns, http.
• Net filtering (eyeball/datacenter) via Globalping location tags.

RIPE Atlas can provide significantly more probes in some regions, but it comes with different constraints:

• Requires a RIPE Atlas API key (user-provided in the UI; stored locally).
• Currently supported commands: ping, traceroute, dns.
• Measurements can take longer to stream results; ping6.it shows a dedicated progress indicator.
• Geo presets are mapped to a curated set of ISO country codes (best-effort; see limitations).

ping6.it always tries to compare like-for-like by running IPv4 and IPv6 on the same probes.

ping6.it creates two Globalping measurements (v4 and v6) and ensures they run on the same probe set:

• First run selects probes normally (based on From, Net, limit, ASN/ISP filters, etc.)
• Second run is executed on the exact same probes by referencing the first measurement id as locations

The ordering depends on the IPv6-capable probes only toggle:

• Enabled (default):

  1. run IPv6 first (ipVersion: 6) to select probes that can execute IPv6
  2. run IPv4 (ipVersion: 4) on the same probes by referencing the IPv6 measurement id

• Disabled:

  1. run IPv4 first (ipVersion: 4) to select probes
  2. run IPv6 (ipVersion: 6) on the same probes by referencing the IPv4 measurement id

RIPE Atlas allows creating multiple measurements in a single API call. ping6.it creates the v4 and v6 measurements together, so they share the same allocated probes.

• With IPv6-capable probes only enabled, probe selection is tightened with Atlas tags so probes are expected to support both IPv4 and IPv6.
• With it disabled, probe selection prioritises IPv4 coverage; the IPv6 side may have fewer results if some probes lack IPv6 connectivity.

To keep the v4/v6 comparison meaningful and to reduce abuse, the server applies defensive validation.

• For ping, traceroute, mtr, and http, the target must be a hostname (IP literals are rejected).
• For dns:
  • Globalping: the input may also be an IP literal (e.g. PTR).
  • RIPE Atlas: the target must be a hostname (Atlas DNS is implemented as “query this name against a resolver”).

For http, the UI accepts a full URL (e.g. https://example.com/path?x=1) and splits it into host/path/query before calling the API.

Choose the measurement network backend:

• Globalping (default)
• RIPE Atlas (experimental)

When using RIPE Atlas, you must provide an Atlas API key in the Settings panel.

Privacy note: the Atlas API key is not stored locally in your browser and is never included in share links.

• Single target: one hostname (or IP literal for DNS on Globalping).
• Multi-target: paste multiple targets (one per line). ping6.it will run them sequentially and show a consolidated summary.

Selects the measurement type:

• ping
• traceroute
• mtr (Globalping only)
• dns
• http (Globalping only)

Changing the command resets the UI to Basic mode.

Selects probe location(s). The UI provides macro regions and sub-regions.

• On Globalping, the resulting string is sent as a Globalping location expression.
• On RIPE Atlas, presets are mapped to a curated set of ISO country codes (best-effort).

Filters probes by network type:

• any
• eyeball (access/consumer)
• datacenter

Internally this is implemented via Globalping location tags.

Number of probes to select.

• Globalping is clamped to a small max (currently 10).
• RIPE Atlas allows more (currently 50).

Optional filters that constrain probe selection:

• ASN: numeric ASN (e.g. 12345) — recommended.
• ISP: best-effort string label. Upstream support and metadata quality vary; prefer ASN when possible.

Ensures probe selection is driven by IPv6 reachability (or dual-stack tags on Atlas), then reuses the same probes for IPv4.

When enabled, ping6.it also uses a stricter comparison mode for summary statistics so medians are not skewed by probes that only returned one side.

Optional threshold used in summaries/reports to highlight large v6-v4 deltas.

• Run starts the v4/v6 measurement pair on the selected backend.
• Cancel aborts the in-progress run.

A Cloudflare Turnstile challenge is used to reduce automated abuse. Verification is performed server-side.

Enabled once both v4 and v6 results are present. Shows the raw command output returned by each probe for both IP versions.

Available once results are present:

• JSON: raw bundle (settings + per-probe raw results)
• CSV: per-probe rows (useful for quick offline inspection)

• Share link: encodes current settings into URL query parameters.
• Report mode: creates a shareable, read-only view that includes the results.
  • With REPORT_KV (or ASN_META_KV fallback) configured, results are stored in KV and shared as a short link: /r/<id>.
  • Without KV, ping6.it falls back to a long URL that embeds the full report bundle (may hit URL size limits).

Backend availability:

• Globalping: ping, traceroute, mtr, dns, http
• RIPE Atlas: ping, traceroute, dns

Basic:

• target (hostname)
• probes, from/net filters

Advanced:

• Packets: packets per probe

Output:

• per-probe timing and loss
• summary medians for v4/v6 and Δ

Basic:

• target (hostname)

Advanced:

• Proto: icmp / udp / tcp (depending on backend support)
• Port: for UDP/TCP modes when applicable

Output:

• reached/last hop, hop count, and timing summaries (v4 vs v6)

(Globalping only)

Basic:

• target (hostname)

Advanced:

• Packets/hop: packets per hop

Output:

• loss and latency summaries (v4 vs v6), reached flags

Basic:

• target (hostname, or IP literal for PTR on Globalping)

Advanced:

• Query: record type
• Proto / Port
• Resolver: optional; empty means probe default resolver (Globalping) / default resolver is used (Atlas)
• trace: if enabled, include trace information when supported

Output:

• totals (ms) and ratio v6/v4 where applicable

(Globalping only)

Basic:

• target hostname, or a full URL which is split into host/path/query

Advanced:

• Method
• Proto: http / https
• Path / Query / Port
• Resolver: optional; empty means probe default resolver

Output:

• status codes and total times (ms), ratio v6/v4 where applicable

In per-probe tables, the ASN column is clickable.

The ASN details panel shows:

• A short explanation of what the ASN represents in the context of a probe.
• The number of probes in the current table that share that ASN.
• Metadata fetched from RIPEstat (best-effort):
  • AS overview (holder name, country, etc.)
  • Announced prefixes (sampled) and a prefix-size distribution
  • RPKI validation breakdown (valid/invalid/unknown)

The server caches ASN metadata at the edge. If you bind a KV namespace (recommended), caching becomes more reliable and the same KV can also be used for rate limiting.

A compact label indicating which stack “wins” for a given probe/summary:

• v4 / v6: lower time (or better outcome) for that probe
• tie: values equal within reported granularity
• v4 only / v6 only: only one stack returned a usable result

• Positive: v6 slower than v4
• Negative: v6 faster than v4

For commands where ratio is shown:

• ratio = v6_total / v4_total
• > 1: v6 slower
• < 1: v6 faster

This repo includes Cloudflare Pages Functions used by the UI:

• POST /api/measurements-pair Creates a Globalping v4/v6 measurement pair and validates Cloudflare Turnstile server-side.

• POST /api/atlas/measurements-pair Creates a RIPE Atlas v4/v6 measurement pair (single Atlas API request) and validates Cloudflare Turnstile server-side.

• GET /api/atlas/measurements/:id Reads and normalizes RIPE Atlas measurement results (with best-effort probe metadata caching).

• POST /api/globalping/measurements Proxy/sanitizer for Globalping create requests (defensive validation/clamping).

• GET /api/globalping/measurements/:id Proxy for reading Globalping measurement results.

• GET /api/asn/:asn Fetches ASN metadata from RIPEstat (with edge caching; optional KV binding).

There is also an NLNOG Looking Glass proxy endpoint under functions/api/nlnog/ (currently not exposed in the UI).

• Globalping and RIPE Atlas are different systems. Probe availability, metadata quality, and timing differ.
• RIPE Atlas geo presets are best-effort. ping6.it maps regions/subregions to a curated set of country codes; Atlas may still allocate probes differently than expected.
• RIPE Atlas is slower. Results can take 10–60 seconds (or more) to stream in.
• Globalping availability varies. Some geos and filters can return “no probes found”.
• IPv6-capable probes only can reduce availability significantly in sparse regions.
• ISP filtering is best-effort. Prefer ASN when possible.
• Turnstile is enforced for pair creation. Automated usage without a valid challenge token will fail.
• Pair endpoints are rate-limited. On 429, check Retry-After.
• Report mode prefers short links when REPORT_KV (or ASN_META_KV fallback) is configured. Without KV, it falls back to embedding results into the URL (large reports may hit URL size limits).

Requirements:

• Node.js (CI uses Node 20)

Install and run (frontend):

npm ci
npm run dev

Build:

npm run build
npm run preview

ping6.it is designed to run on Cloudflare Pages with Pages Functions.

• TURNSTILE_SECRET (Pages environment variable)
• VITE_TURNSTILE_SITEKEY (Pages environment variable for the frontend build)

• ATLAS_API_KEY (server-side fallback for RIPE Atlas; the UI can also send X-Atlas-Key from the user’s local settings)
• KV binding ASN_META_KV (recommended)
  • Used for ASN metadata caching
  • Can also be used for rate limiting storage (zero-config)
• KV binding REPORT_KV (recommended)
  • Enables short report links (/r/<id>) by storing report bundles with a TTL (default: 30 days; configurable via REPORT_TTL_DAYS).
• KV binding RATE_LIMIT_KV (optional separate storage for rate limiting)

Static assets in public/ help discoverability and richer link previews:

• robots.txt and sitemap.xml for search engines
• og.png used by Open Graph / Twitter card meta tags (default social preview)
• logo-badge.svg used in the README and as a lightweight logo asset
• manifest.webmanifest + icons (PWA metadata)
• .well-known/security.txt for vuln disclosure contact

The public/_headers file also sets cache and content-type headers for these resources on Cloudflare Pages.

See CONTRIBUTING.md and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.

See SECURITY.md.

ping6.it is built on top of:

• Globalping (API + distributed probes)
• RIPE Atlas (API + distributed probes)

• Source code: GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later) — see LICENSE.
• Documentation and website content: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) — see LICENSE-DOCS.