There are many browsers based on Chromium like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Samsung Internet, to mention a few. Of all that I have tried, there is one I only recently discovered and immediately fell in love with, Naver Whale (네이버 웨일).

Naver Whale (네이버 웨일) is a multi-platform Chromium-based browser developed and launched by the Korean company Naver (네이버) in 2011. It is available in English other than its native Korean language and is actively maintained.

How to install

Installation is very simple, download Whale (웨일) from the official website and install the browser. The official link will automatically detect the appropriate operating system installer file to download.

Features

These are the unique features that comes with Naver Whale (네이버 웨일).

• Dual-pane tab
  • Linked and unlinked dual-pane mode
• Naver (네이버) specific features
  • Notice
  • Toolbox
  • Scrapbook
  • Papago (파파고)
• sidebar apps
  • Music Player V2
  • Webtoon (웹툰)
  • Memo
  • Now
• Other Naver (네이버) extensions
  • VLive
  • Vibe (바이브)

Dual-pane tab

Dual-pane tab is a cool feature in Naver Whale (네이버 웨일). A single browser tab can have two panes to give the user more freedom in viewing content side-by-side. There are two modes: linked and unlinked.

In linked mode, clicking an active link on the left pane will open it on the right pane. This is very useful when reading or doing research. Instead of switching between tabs, the user can check the referenced document with ease.

In unlinked mode, the two panes work independently of each other. Any links clicked on either pane will open on itself; or a new tab entirely (if desired).

It is also possible to merge two tabs into a single dual-pane tab. This is useful when sharing content in an SNS platform.

Notice

Notice is a sidebar built into Naver Whale (네이버 웨일). It shows the notifications and updates related to the user’s Naver (네이버) account. It is basically an easy access removing the need to open a dedicated tab.

Toolbox

This is a very useful sidebar section Naver Whale (네이버 웨일) have. It offers easy access to common tools like a calculator, exchange rate conversion, units conversion, and even to see the latest in the stock market.

The toolbox currently offers the following tools:

• Clock
• Alarm
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Convert (unit conversion)
• Exchange Rate
• Stock market updates
• Korean spell checker

Scrapbook

Scrapbook is, by the name itself, a scrapbook for quickly saving information. Compared to a regular memo or note taking app or extension, Scrapbook automatically categorizes saved information into notes, links, images, videos, and files which can then be accessed anywhere, like a mobile phone, a desktop PC or laptop, and through a web interface. If Mozilla Firefox have Pocket, Whale has Scrapbook.

It is also possible to further place information into more specific topics by creating new categories or tags. One cool feature of Scrapbook is the ability to connect another service which has to effect of auto-saving items or links by simply clicking Like or Watch Later or Wish List. Currently supported are Naver TV and Naver Keep; while Naver Shopping, and YouTube were recently disabled pending an update.

Papago

Naver Papago (네이버 파파고) is the company’s very own translation service. It is powered by a neural machine translation which uses an artificial neural network for its translations. A translation based on a neural network most often provide natural translations, as if a natural speaker did the translation. The name Papago is an Esperanto word for parrot.

This built-in feature also offers website translations. A flag icon will show up at the extensions bar when a site is in a language other than the default language set in the browser. If the browser is in English and a website is in another language, if Naver Papago (네이버 파파고) supports the language the icon will appear. The power of neural translation right at the user’s fingertips.

Naver Papago (네이버 파파고) offers neural translations for Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and Hindi.

Music Player V2

Naver Whale (네이버 웨일) also comes with Naver’s Music Player sidebar app. It currently supports Naver Vibe (네이버 바이브), Bugs! (벅스!), Genie (지니), and YouTube Music; the most popular music streaming platforms in Korea with a web player.

Webtoon

A fan of Korea’s webtoons, in particular the Naver Webtoon (네이버 웹툰) platform? Naver Whale (네이버 웨일) browser comes by default with the Naver Webtoon (네이버 웹툰) sidebar app.

With the Naver Webtoon (네이버 웹툰) sidebar app, users can easily check the latest webtoon episodes; the rankings; and discover new ones.

Memo

The Memo sidebar app is useful for users of the Naver Memo mobile app. It give users an easy way to access their notes across devices.

Now

Naver Now was formerly known as Naver TV, the one place to watch live shows of K-pop acts, chat in real-time, and interact with fellow fans. It is focused more on a more professional production, like any usually seen on TV.

VLive

If Naver Now is focused on professional production of live performances, VLive is the platform for artists to interact with their fans, be more casual, and provide any content they can think of. On top of the free and no-IP restriction basic service, celebrities can choose to offer paid content through the service’s different tiers.

VLive is similar to services like Kumu, Chums Live, and Bigo Live but for established names in the industry. In addition, what makes this service more unique from other platforms is that fans can submit subtitles for the videos or past live streams.

Vibe

Naver Vibe (네이버 바이브) is the company’s music streaming platform. Their former music service was merged after the latter was closed in late 2020. Users of Naver Vibe (네이버 바이브) can easily listen to their favourite music or discover new ones by just opening the Naver Vibe (네이버 바이브) sidebar icon.

A good feature of Naver Vibe (네이버 바이브) is its use of artificial intelligence when creating music recommendations to its users instead of the traditional charts. The service also does not offer a monthly subscription fee, rather, users pay for the songs they want to listen to.

Bonus: Media control center

The Whale (웨일) media control center is a built-in feature which displays all the active (playing or paused) media from any tab, extensions, and sidebar app. As shown in the screenshot above, it provides control for three active media recently played during the browsing session.

In closing

Naver Whale (네이버 웨일) is a very good alternative browser for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other popular Chromium-based browsers like Opera and Vivaldi. Whale (웨일) is geared toward ordinary users and professionals who prefer to have an out-of-the-box experience where the tools they need are but a click away.

It is currently my default Chromium-based browser, and the services offered by Naver (네이버) are quite useful.

We all use the bittorrent protocol, anyone who claims they do not download anything “torrent” is probably someone from the 90s or possibly from the future where a new technology replaced it. For example, if you are playing World of Warcraft then you are getting the game patches via the bittorrent protocol, because Blizzard’s game launcher uses this technology.

Bittorrent is a type of peer-to-peer network. It is not “evil” as some groups are trying to paint it to be. Even in films, there are those that actually encourage the piracy of their material or more exactly, the sharing of their production via torrent. Mainly to show that this piece of technology is neutral.

As someone who downloads materials via the bittorrent network, we have all seen those acronyms or lingo used in this space. Here are some terminologies and acronyms you will find and probably have encountered already when searching for a new torrent show to download.

Pre-release

• WP means Workprint. It is a copy that is not yet finished but already released for public consumption. It can be missing music and scenes. The quality ranges from poor to excellent.

• SCR or Screener is a promotional pre-VHS tape usually sent to rental stores.

• TC for Telecine, a film-to-tape or film-to-digital copy. The quality is generally comparable to a DVD copy.

• R5, short for DVD Region 5. Often lack image post-processing and special features common to a traditional/normal scheduled DVD releases.

• R5line, is an R5 release but whose audio is a direct English copy (usually direct line from a theatre audio system).

• DVDscr for DVD-Screener. This is a copy sent to film critics, awards voters, producers, distributors, and any other important groups or people prior to the official DVD/Theatrical release date. It often has no post-processing. In other words, for review purposes.

In-cinema

• CAM or camera. A recording of a film by the use of a camera and a tripod inside theatres.

• TS or Telesync is the same as a camera release except it uses an external audio source like an audio jack.

Home Video Rip

Most of these are self-explanatory.

• VHSrip
• TVrip
• PDTV (Pure Digital Television)
• HDTVrip
• DVDrip
• BRrip - a Blu-ray release whose source is a BDrip
• BDrip (Blu-ray Disc Rip) - a direct Blu-ray Disc copy

Note that a “BDrip” and “BRrip” are usually interchanged in releases without subtitles. It is not easy to detect if it was a direct rip or a re-rip of a BDrip. However, when a release includes an embedded subtitle then it is no doubt a BRrip. Meaning, the source was from a BDrip file re-encoded with the subtitles. Unless the source material also have subtitles and it was digitised together with the material, then it still will fall as a BDrip.

“BDrip” and “BRrip” are the best rips you can find online, provided the encoder used the best combination of codecs and settings. Otherwise, a Blu-ray Disc rip can and may turn out bad or have artifacts.

Google, the largest search engine today (and the “Microsoft” of the cyberworld), is slowly deploying IPv6 across their sites. But even if you are already connected to IPv6, you will still not get an IPv6 Google.

Why? Their current IPv6 implementation is currently in its testing phase. All IPv6 access must come from a reliable network that they have to pre-approve, this is the Google over IPv6 project.

How it works

Google over IPv6 uses the IPv4 address of your DNS resolver to determine whether a network is IPv6-capable. If you enable Google over IPv6 for your resolver, IPv6 users of that resolver will receive AAAA records for IPv6-enabled Google services …

Normally, if a DNS resolver requests an IPv6 address for a Google web site, it will not receive one…

… but a DNS resolver with Google over IPv6 will receive an IPv6 address, and its users will be able to connect to Google web sites using IPv6.

So unless you are using a DNS with Google over IPv6 enabled, the only IPv6 Google website you will be able to use is ipv6.google.com. That’s sad! Especially if most of the sites you visit are still hosted on non-IPv6 enabled servers.

Fortunately, there are many good-hearted people and corporations in the world today offering free access to their IPv6 DNS. We have Gogo6.com’s Freenet6 DNS and Hurricane Electric’s Tunnelbroker.net DNS.

But how do we use these IPv6 DNS? Let me show you how.

Ubuntu Linux way

• Go to Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager)

• Search for “dnsmasq” and install it

• Open a Terminal (Accessories -> Terminal)

• Type:

  1	gksu gedit /etc/dnsmasq.conf

• Look for:

  1	#listen-address=

• Change it to:

  1	listen-address=127.0.0.1

• Look for:

  1	#server=/localnet/192.168.0.1

• Add the following after/below it:

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  server=/google.com/2001:470:20::2 server=/google.com/74.82.42.42 server=/www.google.com/2001:470:20::2 server=/www.google.com/74.82.42.42 server=/youtube.com/2001:470:20::2 server=/youtube.com/74.82.42.42 server=/www.youtube.com/2001:470:20::2 server=/www.youtube.com/74.82.42.42

• Save and close the file

• Still in the Terminal, type:

  1	gksu gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

• Look for:

  1	#prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;

• Uncomment that line by removing the sharp (’#’) sign

• Save and close the file

• Still in the Terminal, type:

  1	gksu gedit /etc/resolv.conf

• Before any other nameserver entries, add this:

  1	nameserver 127.0.0.1

• Save and close the file

• Still in the Terminal, type:

  1	sudo /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart

What happens is this: we are using dnsmasq to reroute all queries to google.com to HE’s IPv6 DNS which has been confirmed to be Google over IPv6 enabled. Any Google services that are not yet using IPv6 or not yet part of the project will simply use IPv4, like the YouTube entry we added (read: YouTube is the IPv6 team’s number one priority right now).

But if you are not using DHCP, then the DHCP edits you did previously will not work. Or if you are using NetworkManager to manage your connection settings, then it will only overwrite your resolv.conf file. Here’s what you should do to solve this:

• Open your NetworkManager and go to your network/connection profile (example: eth0)

• Open/edit it and go to the “IPv4 Settings” tab

• In the “DNS servers:” field, simply add this before any other DNS entries you may have:

  1

  127.0.0.1

• Click “Apply”, then close it.

  This way, every time the NetworkManager connects and overwrites the resolv.conf file, it will always add 127.0.0.1 to the file. Just like in the DHCP edits you did above, it ensures that the listening IP being used by dnsmasq is the first DNS your system will check when you are browsing.

In your terminal type:

1

ping6 www.google.com

You should see something like this:

1
2
3

ping6 www.google.com
PING www.google.com(tx-in-x68.1e100.net) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from tx-in-x68.1e100.net: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=231 ms

These are the Google sites and services tested to be accessible via IPv6 (as of this article):

• Google Sites: https://sites.google.com
• Google Translate: https://translate.google.com
• Google Earth: https://earth.google.com
• Google Moderator: https://web.archive.org/web/20150621104346/https://moderator.appspot.com/
• Google FeedBurner: https://feedburner.google.com
• Google YouTube: https://www.youtube.com
• Google App Engine: https://appengine.google.com
• Google Code: https://code.google.com
• Google Docs: https://docs.google.com
• Google Health: https://health.google.com
• Google Mail (“gmail”): https://mail.google.com
• Google Wave: https://wave.google.com
• Google Blogs: https://web.archive.org/web/20140819225340/https://blogsearch.google.com/
• Google Images: https://images.google.com
• Google News: https://news.google.com
• Google Maps: https://maps.google.com
• Google Picasa: https://picasa.google.com
• Google Picasa Web Albums: https://picasaweb.google.com
• Google Accounts: https://www.google.com/accounts
• Google Ad Manager: https://www.google.com/admanager
• Google AdSense: https://www.google.com/adsense
• Google Analytics: https://www.google.com/analytics
• Google Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar
• Google Finance: https://www.google.com/finance
• iGoogle: https://www.google.com/ig
• Google Reader: https://www.google.com/reader/
• Google Search: https://www.google.com
• Google Alerts: https://www.google.com/alerts
• Google Apps: https://www.google.com/apps
• Google Chrome: https://www.google.com/chrome
• Google Directory: https://web.archive.org/web/20111109041904/https://www.google.com:80/dirhp
• Google Mars: https://www.google.com/mars
• Google Mobile: https://www.google.com/intl/en/mobile
• Google Moon: https://www.google.com/moon
• Google Sky: https://www.google.com/sky
• Google and Space: https://web.archive.org/web/20110925082258/https://www.google.com:80/space/
• Google Talk: https://www.google.com/talk

Not yet accessible via IPv6:

• Google AdWords: https://adwords.google.com
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com
• Google Orkut: https://www.orkut.com

As far as I know, it is not possible to host a “sub-folder” in another server, thus we can safely assume that all Google sites with this URL format: www.google.com/{sitename} are IPv6 enabled. However, Google sites and services that are using a subdomain.google.com URL or any other, can either be IPv6 already or not. Subdomains can easily be pointed to a totally different server somewhere in cyberspace.

How about Windows users?

For those who are still using Windows XP, you are out-of-luck. Even if you can add an IPv6 DNS, it will not work, I tried it myself and it was confirmed by Mikael Lind here.

Update for Windows XP users: I found a way to do it and I will be posting it here soon! The life of your too old OS just got a little bit longer.

For Windows 7 users, you will have to wait until I can get a Win7 OS or a machine that I can break. Or better ask the experts in IPv6 like the guys and gals of the gogo6 Community.

Update 2010-02-25: Sorry WinXP users you really have to upgrade to Windows 7. The method works but it is not consistent - sometimes it works, sometimes not. It is also very different per machine (it is weird!) even if you have everything duplicated perfectly.

It will only invite frustration and plenty of questions. Again, I recommend upgrading to Windows 7 if you want a consistent and stable IPv6 capability.

Update 2010-09-20: Google Sites, Google Translate, Google Earth, Google Moderator, and Google FeedBurner, are now all IPv6 enabled.

IPv6 or Internet Protocol version 6 is the answer to our IPv4 problem. What problem? By 2011 or 2012 (according to estimates), there will be no more IPv4 addresses left. This means that, anyone with a need to have a static IP address will not be able to get any for their project or service.

When this day comes, someone must start finding IP address owners who does not really need a static address and give it to someone who needs it seriously. We may even see owners starting to sell their extra IPs at a price far more expensive that what it is worth today.

But that will not happen, because two decades ago, the powers-that-be already started experimenting with IPv6 which will give us 2¹²⁸ addresses. That is equivalent to 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IPv6 Addresses, according to my Einstein brain calculation :p Or simply: 340 with 36 zeroes (I admit, I used a calculator).

Compare that to IPv4 which only have 2³² or 4,294,967,296 IP addresses. It is a huge difference! IPv6 which use 128-bit addresses and IPv4 which is only 32-bit. Each computer in the world can now have its own IP Address and we are only scratching the surface of IPv6. In fact, if we subtract the number of IPv4 addresses we have, we still have 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,427,473,244,160 IPv6 addresses available.

I know you have plenty of questions but time is not on our side. What I am going to answer for you today is how you can start connecting to the IPv6 Internet without waiting for your ISP to start implementing it.

For this tutorial or How-To Guide, I am going to show you how I setup my Ubuntu Linux 9.10 “Karmic Koala” Linux Mint 11 “Katya” 64-bit (based on Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal”). So let’s begin!

• Go to Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager)

• Search for: miredo; gogoc; and radvd and install all three.

• Open a terminal (Accessories -> Terminal)

• Type:

  1	sudo /etc/init.d/radvd stop

• Type:

  1	gksu gedit /etc/gogoc/gogoc.conf

• If your main connection is not eth0 then change if_prefix= accordingly

• If you are setting this up on a workstation computer, then change host_type=router to host_type=host

• Type:

  1	sudo /etc/init.d/gogoc restart

Update 2010-03-29: Additional step from Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid Lynx” and up.

• Still on your terminal, type:

  1	gksu gedit /etc/default/gogoc

• Look for # CHECK_KEYFILE="yes" and change it to CHECK_KEYFILE="no"

Update 2009-12-23: An update from Jeremy Duncan on setting up your Linux box as a router.

Make sure IPV6FORWARDING is set to yes in /etc/sysconfig/network like so: IPV6FORWARDING=yes.

You are done! To test if your IPv6 is working do or visit the following:

• In your terminal, type:

  1	ping6 ipv6.google.com

  it should show something like this:

  1 2 3

  ping6 ipv6.google.com PING ipv6.google.com(fx-in-x68.1e100.net) 56 data bytes 64 bytes from fx-in-x68.1e100.net: icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=496 ms

• Open up your favorite browser and visit test-ipv6.com

• and/or ipv6-test.com

• and/or ip6.me

Why use a Tunnel Broker if we have Miredo/Teredo?

For one, Miredo/Teredo was developed only as a temporary gateway to the IPv6 Internet. In fact, it was set as the last access point when you have other IPv6 implementation like a tunnel broker.

Another reason is to have a static IPv6 address (even if your ISP gives you a dynamic IPv4 address). For this to work, you have to register an account over at Gogo6.com’s Freenet6 service (register here).

Then you have to edit your gogoc.conf, follow the instructions below:

• Open a Terminal again

• Type:

  1	sudo /etc/init.d/radvd stop

• Type:

  1	gksu gedit /etc/gogoc/gogoc.conf

• Adjust your existing gogoc.conf with this one:

  1 2 3 4

  userid=ENTER_YOUR_FREENET6_USERNAME_HERE passwd=ENTER_YOUR_FREENET6_PASSWORD_HERE server=authenticated.freenet6.net auth_method=any

• Type:

  1	sudo /etc/init.d/gogoc restart

You’re done! From now on, you will have the same IPv6 address everytime you connect to Freenet6’s network. However, do note that you still get a different static IP depending on which Freenet6 server you are connected. If you really want to connect to the exact same server simply change this configuration in your gogoc.conf

1

always_use_same_server=no

to:

1

always_use_same_server=yes

But before you do that, please connect to Freenet6 at least once, so your gogoc daemon will have a list of servers to connect to and be able to choose the “best” one for you. Then set it up as instructed, and you’ll be connecting to that same “best” server everytime the gogoc daemon is (re)-started. Easy?

Welcome to the next generation of the Internet - the IPv6 world.