Is the Internet running out of IPv4 Addresses?
Thursday, February 10th, 2011 [ Posted by Wesley H ]What is IPv4?
IPv4 stands for Internet Protocol version 4. This is essentially a number similar to 192.0.2.235 used to identify individual nodes (such as servers or mobile devices) within the Internet.
What is IPv4 depletion?
IPv4 depletion is a result of all IPv4 addresses being allocated. Currently this only means that those addresses have been allocated to regional bodies for further distribution. Many companies have a large unused allocation still available, webqem are among those companies. We are not close to running out of IPv4 addresses.
When IPv4 was deployed as a standard 232 (roughly 4.3 billion) addresses were allocated. This was deemed to be more than enough for the users of the Internet at this time (mostly military or university).
With the proliferation of the Internet in the late 80′s concern began to grow that these addresses would begin to run out.
The future. IPv6
There was nothing unexpected about the depletion of the IPv4 address range. The Internet community have been planning for this for quite some time.
While we are OK for now it always pays to prepare for the future and in 1998 a new protocol was finalised; IPv6. This protocol takes into account the massive growth of the Internet allowing for 2128 addresses which is 3.4×1038 or 340 undecillion addresses.
As the IPv4 addresses are used up more and more hosts, providers, manufacturers and ISP’s will move to this new protocol.
How will this affect you?
The short answer for the vast majority of Internet users is “not at all”. The good news is most computers and mobile phones already support IPv6 and have done for a number of years. It’s been a part of windows XP since 2003 ? The bad news, most home networking products like wireless routers and ADSL modems do not support IPv6. It will also mean you will be forced to upgrade from Internet Explorer 6 but that can’t be a bad thing can it?
Will internet addresses look any different ?
No, sites will still have the same type of address styles ie. www.yourdomainname.com.au
Do I need to re-register my existing website address or will it stop working?
No. Internet address registrars will convert your website to run an IPv4 and IPv6 number in parallel probably sometime after 2012 but it could be even further away given the first global test of IPv6 by Google, yahoo and Microsoft is scheduled for June 2011.
So how do I register a website on this new address space?
Simply contact your DNS provider when they become available.
Larger organisations should have a plan for moving to IPv6 if they don’t already have one, many ISP’s can help with the transition process providing IPV4-IPv6 transition packages.
For more information on IPv4 depletion see this Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_address_exhaustion

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