ICMP messages works both for IPv4 and IPv6, for IPv6 has more functions.

It provides error messages

and informational messages.

Common ICMP messages for IPv4 and IPv6:

 Host reachability – just ping command
Destination or service unreachable – host or a gateway cannot deliver a message, so it
notifies the source that it cannot be delivered, it also provides a code because it couldn’t be
delivered.

In ICMPv4:
 0 – net unreachable
 1 – host unreachable
 2 – protocol unreachable
 3 – port unreachable

In ICMPv6:
 0 – no route to destination
 1 – firewall does not provide the connection between these devices
 2 – beyond the scope of source address
 3 – address unreachable
 4 – port unreachable

Time exceeded – when in IPv4 TTL is 0 or hop limit in IPv6 is 0, router discards the frame and sends a
time exceeded message.

Messaging between an IPv6 router and an IPv6 device, including

dynamic address allocation are as follows:
 Router Solicitation (RS) message
 Router Advertisement (RA) message

Messaging between IPv6 devices, including duplicate address

detection and address resolution are as follows:
 Neighbor Solicitation (NS) message
 Neighbor Advertisement (NA) message

Type of connectivity tests performed with ping include the

following:
 Pinging the local loopback – checks if host IP is correctly configured (127.0.0.1 for IPv4 or ::1
for IPv6
 Pinging the default gateway – as it is read, if it responds, a host can communicate over a
LAN, router can be also configured to not response to ping messages
 Pinging the remote host – if it responds, the functionality of larger part of network can be
verified, it means that router interfaces are configured
Traceroute is used to indicate the problem, the specific node like router that the error is in. It uses TTL
or hop limit to go only to specific node.