Networking 101: Subnets Realized (Including IPv6) Aug 7, 2008, 10 :30 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (4222 reads) (Other stories by Charlie Schluting)
"On the topic of confusing netmasks, IPv6 addresses certainly have a place. The netmask isn't really an issue—the same concept applies, just with larger numbers to remember. The real problem lies within the address representation itself; the IETF seemed to take pride in creating confusion. Typically an IPv6 address is represented in hex, or base-16. Our old friend IPv4 could represent an IP address in hex too, which would look like B.B.B.B for the address 11.11.11.11. Unfortunately, IPv6 isn't quite that nice looking. To represent 128 bits, IPv6 normally breaks up the address into eight 16-bit segments."
