Don't Panic: IPv4 Addresses to Run Out in One Year
Don't Panic: IPv4 Addresses to Run Out in One Year
Posted 07/22/2010 at 2:34pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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According to several people in the know, the Internet will run out of new IPv4 address space in less than a year. As more internet enabled devices flood the market place, we're moving inexorably towards the day when the new IPv6 standard will have to save the day. But will we be ready?
IPv4 addresses are limited to 32-bit numbers, thus about 4 billion unique addresses exist. The IPv6 standard uses 128-bit numbers. So that works out to a few quintillion addresses. That should certainly be enough to tide us over until we entrust our network infrastructure to the loving embrace of Skynet. Most of the hard work to get ready for the changeover needs to be done by ISPs, which need to deliver addresses as IPv6.
Large content providers like Google and Facebook aren't just sitting back though. They will need to work with ISPs to ensure their content is implemented as IPv6. Do you foresee any issues with the IPv6 transition?
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Talcum X
July 23, 2010 at 10:31am
As this is all for publically addressed IPs, the many LANs out there using private IPs won't have much of a burdon. Will be handled at the router. I would just hate to have to do any IPv6 troubleshooting though. Thats a loooooooong addy.
JohnP
July 23, 2010 at 12:55am
IPv6 has been implemented in much more operating systems, hardware and companies than most people know. Turning it on locally has been done but takes a while for the rest of humanity to catch up.
Number Six
July 22, 2010 at 8:16pm
But-number (Noun). A word or symbol, or a combination of words or symbols, used by butt-monkeys in counting or in noting a total.
nightkiller
July 22, 2010 at 8:06pm
Corporations have whole blocks of Class A addresses assigned to them(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assigned_/8_IP_address_blocks), with each block containing over 16 million addresses. You mean to tell me that in this day and age of NATted addressing, the likes of General Electric, Ford, Apple, IBM and Hewlett Packard need this address space all for themselves?
compro01
August 04, 2010 at 10:50pm
We're using up more than a /8 per month currently. After all the kicking, screaming, and hair pulling reclaiming those blocks would entail (and I mean ALL the blocks listed on that page. IBM and level3 certainly use most of their allotment, and I doubt the DoD would easily give up their blocks), it would only push back IPv4 exhaustion by about 2 1/2 years.
theresapartyinm...
July 22, 2010 at 5:16pm
People have been saying this for at least 7 years. The move to IPv6 will come within the next decade I would guess, but not next year. Another thing, IPv4 will be used alongside IPv6 for years, so no one will have to throw out their routers or change their networks.
mattman059
July 22, 2010 at 3:26pm
to be exact...IPv6 can support 2^128 (or one Undecillion) IPv6 addresses...quite literally one IPv6 address for every grain of sand on the planet..
praetor_alpha
July 22, 2010 at 6:10pm
to be exact...IPv6 can support 2^128 (or one Undecillion) IPv6 addresses...quite literally one IPv6 address for every grain of sand on the planet...
...on every planet in the galaxy.
nforce
July 22, 2010 at 2:57pm
The System admins will have to know how to use ipv6 and to learn ipv6 is very hard.
theresapartyinm...
July 23, 2010 at 12:04pm
It is the same. The only difference is that each octet can go up to 15 with the use of hexadecimal numbers. Subnetting these networks is the same as it has always been, also if you are a network admin you should know this as it is on almost any networking certification exam now.
Biceps
July 22, 2010 at 2:36pm
32-bIt numbers, right? I can't stand 32-but numbers, they are so full of excuses.
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