just wondering if anyone could offer some advice. Ive just started studying basic networking and have an assignment that involves discussing differences between IPv4 and IPv6, advantages of IPv6 etc etc.

One point that interests me is that the 128 bit addressing of IPv6 includes provision for including both the MAC and IP within the same address.

Some texts Ive looked at make a point like "it makes networks easier to administer, since we don't have to record two arbitrary numbers for each host". This is fine and dandy but having obviously never been a network admin I dont know what this means on a day to day basis for someone who deals with it. Why is this such an advantage? Ive found it difficult to find any further info on this and Id like to go into a little bit more detail than "easier to administer" and wondering if maybe any network admins (or anyone!) could offer some direction/hints on how this would make their world a better place.

cheers.