Internet IP Addresses Will World IPv6 Day Keep You Connected?
Talk about the finite amount of bandwidth usage for the internet was the topic of the day a while back, but today the most pressing concern is the finite amount of internet ip addresses and the fact that the worldwide web is running out of them.
The History Behind Internet IP Addresses
Turns out that way back in 1976 when the Department of Defense (DoD) was busy connecting computers and creating what ultimately became the internet the rest of us use each day, they were sort of forced to put a number on just how many internet ip addresses the data network was going to need.
Sounding amazingly like a Bill Gates reverberation from the past about memory and RAM in an in-home computer, the DoD settled on 4.3 billion internet ip addresses as the magic number. Little did they know. After all, this whole network thing was “just an experiment” at the time.
Fast Forward 35 Years and the World is Running Out of Internet IP Addresses and How They Plan to Fix That Sticky Problem
Estimated to reach critical mass within the next year to year and a half, the scramble is on to ensure that Earth’s seven billion population doesn’t watch their internet ip addresses and connections go down in flames. Actually that’s a tad dramatic, the powers that be have been aware for quite some time now that there is this huge looming situation that must be dealt with as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
With 4.3 billion internet ip addresses about to max out, Icann (which stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has already sold off its last batch to the hubs around the world. The proposed being worked on solution is to move from IPv4 to IPv6. On the plus side, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft (in tandem with PC makers) started contemplating this dilemma years ago and started looking at ways to avoid “any major calamities.”
What Will Reaching the Allotted Number of Internet IP Addresses Have to Do With You and Me?
Well consider the fact that aside from your home or work pc or Mac needing internet ip addresses to perform any internet connection, with the introduction of smartphones, they, too, are using up internet ip addresses like a kid in a candy store. No more internet ip addresses (no more new web pages?). Also there’s that possibility that the equipment you own today might not communicate well with the system put up “tomorrow.”
But the news is not all doom and gloom. Those with Microsoft Windows 7 and/or Apple’s Mac OS X as their operating system are, by and large, ready for the move from IPv4 to IPv6. In fact, even Comcast (an internet provider) is already onboard with the need to “switch over.”
A suggestion made within that New York Times article (referenced above) is, now that you are aware of the issue too, we (the regular internet users) start asking our internet providers how they are preparing for the change over. Yes, find out and/or put a bug in their ear. It’s coming. Hopefully, your provider (and mine!) are keeping up with the latest news.
On the plus side, once the switch is made to IPv6 (Internet Protocal Version 6) supposedly an “inexhaustible number” of addresses will be created (although within the same paragraph the experts worry whether Version 4 and Version 6 will have any incompatibility problems, you really should read that article).
The IPv6 Transition Test to Create Unlimited Internet IP Addresses is Coming Soon to a Mainframe Near You
The famous (and hopefully not infamous) test date for the IPv4-to-IPv6 is scheduled for June 8, 2011. They’ve actually named it World IPv6 Day. Yahoo!, Google, and Facebook (the mega giants when it comes to creating traffic and moving it along to its proper internet ip addresses) are setting up to “run the experiment.”
However, I will leave you with this positive note. Retraining technicians (or getting new employees already trained) and help desk support services may open a whole new field of employment as the world awaits this internet changeover. Fingers crossed as always.
May World IPv6 Day, and the fix for limitless internet ip addresses go smoothly.
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Had not heard of the changeover. Thanks for the heads up!
I cannot thank you enough for the blog article.Much thanks again. Much obliged.