IPv6 Soaking Up CPU

[Dronecatcher]

All of my Macs have the MenuMeters Preference pane installed, so my CPU use is always visible in the Menu bar - with this I can see that when idling they all use between 0-2% CPU.
I just noticed that my recently acquired 15" DLSD was idling at 12-15% - trying to hunt down that missing CPU task in Activity Monitor, Console and Top in Terminal revealed nothing.
I ran Onyx to clear out caches and fix permissions etc but it still remained...then I turned Airport off....back down to 0-2%!
I suddenly remembered, had I turned Configure IPv6 off in Network Preferences like I normally do?
Sure enough, it was set to the default of Automatic - switching it off returned the CPU meter to 0-2% - worth knowing if you like to squeeze out every bit of CPU.

 

[dbdjre0143]

That's such a weird behavior! I realize that IPv6 still doesn't matter for most folks, let alone when Leopard was released, but it still seems like an obvious bug that this would eat that much CPU.

 

[z970]

Can someone refresh me what the point of IPv6 is, let alone to the end user?

 

[weckart]

Can someone refresh me what the point of IPv6 is, let alone to the end user?

Web addresses, I think. With IPv4 we've more or less reached saturation point, so IPv6 is needed to open up more.

 

[Lastic]

IPv4 exhaustion due to more and more devices using IP adresses ( IoT) and more and more things being connected constantly to the Internet.

IPv6 uses 128 bit adresses vs IPv4 using 32 bit adresses , plus IPv6 offers a lot more LAN functionality without needing a router.

 

[timidpimpin]

This is worth a read...
http://ppcluddite.blogspot.com/2017/05/ipv4-is-apparently-ludditeville-and.html

 

[z970]

Thanks, all.