Starting with Windows 7, an interesting technology called Teredo Tunneling appeared in the system, about which the average user knows almost nothing. What is it for, now and try to figure it out.
Teredo: what is it?
If you don’t go into technical details, but speak in a generally accessible language, Teredo is a technology for working with IPv6 addresses via IPv4 protocol, plus the transmission of relevant data packets.
The protocols of the fourth and sixth versions themselves are incompatible, however, if the system uses the Microsoft Teredo adapter (a kind of virtual adapter), this task becomes quite feasible. But most users in their daily work, even taking into account the constant access to the Internet, do not need it.
How justified is the use of Teredo Tunneling Technology
The need for a tunnel adapter from Microsoft today raises legitimate doubts. Firstly, far from all providers support work with the IP protocol of the sixth version (for this you need to have at least an active DHCP server v6).
Secondly, as shown by studies by leading experts of Symantec Corporation, a leader in computer systems security, the Teredo Tunneling Pseudo interface has many potential vulnerabilities. This is due to some of its features.
First of all, in the world today there are not many firewalls capable of processing the Teredo protocol. What does this mean in practical terms? Roughly speaking, attackers at the data transfer stage can bypass any filter is quite simple. In addition, IDS firewalls or threat detection systems cannot deploy double-collapsed traffic based on the UDP and TCP protocols, converting it from the beginning to IPv6, and only then to IPv4. Thus, an attacking package (s) can easily get, for example, into corporate networks and infiltrate into programs that use the protocol of the sixth version in their work.
The Teredo driver, with which problems are often observed, also causes no less complaints. The most common situation is an error with a message about the impossibility of turning on the device (code 10). Therefore, it has to be constantly reinstalled, which does not cause much enthusiasm among users.
Possible driver problems: what to do first
In the event that the failure of the Teredo driver still occurs, for starters you can try to reinstall or update it.
To do this, use only the Device Manager, located in the standard Control Panel, and not third-party programs like Driver Booster, since the device itself is a virtual adapter.
In the manager, you need to select the Teredo adapter and right-click on the context menu. Here, a property string is used or the driver update or driver removal command itself . It is not necessary to download the driver from the Internet in advance, but after installing it when rebooting the system, it is advisable to use the F8 key, and in the menu, additionally select the line for disabling the digital signature verification of the drivers in order to avoid further problems. In the same manager, the driver can simply be turned off so as not to deal with reinstalling it (anyway, most users do not need it).
System scan for viruses
As already mentioned, the adapter itself has enough vulnerabilities. And if errors occur at some stage of work, it is advisable to perform a full system scan for the presence of virus threats and executable malicious codes.
You can do this with a standard scanner, but you need to use not a SMART check, but a deep analysis. But it is better to use professional portable utilities or tools like Kaspersky Rescue Disk, which start before the system starts and produce the most powerful scan.
Scan and restore system files
Let's take a look at the Teredo adapter on the other hand. What it is is already clear. How does it work - too.
But abnormal situations can also be found among the causes of failures . Therefore, if the above methods did not give a result, you should use the command line that is called through cmd in the Run menu (Win + R), where the command to diagnose and restore system files sfc / scannow is written (the console should be launched exclusively on behalf of the administrator).
Disabling the tunnel adapter
Finally, through the command line, the tunnel adapter can be disabled. We launch the console as administrator, as shown above.
Next, write the following sequence: netsh interface teredo set state disabled.
As you can see from the example, the command for network connections is used here, because the adapter itself is a network device.
If the adapter and the corresponding connection need to be activated again, the command set state default is entered in the console as the fourth one (setting the default state).
Automatically fix system crashes
There is another technique that allows you to fix problems with the Teredo adapter without user intervention. What is this tool?
This is a specialized Microsoft Fix It utility. After installing it, it is enough to simply run the program, and all found problems or malfunctions, including the errors of the adapter of interest to us, will be fixed automatically. At the end of the process, even the system does not have to overload.
Conclusion
Of course, with the use of IPv6, the future is beyond doubt. However, at this stage in the development of computer technology, it is too early to talk about its widespread adoption. Microsoft experts look to the future and offer a simple solution for combining different versions of the IP protocol. However, due to the fact that most network and firewalls cannot work with such technologies, the use of this virtual adapter remains extremely limited, if not to say that it is not claimed at all.