Time For A Change: IPv4 Internet Addresses Runs Out In North America - http://goo.gl/QyZshC The BBC is reporting that the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) ran out of spare IP addresses yesterday. "Companies in North America should now accelerate their move to the latest version of the net's addressing system. Now Africa is the only region with any significant blocks of the older version 4 internet addresses available." A British networking company that supplies schools has done an analysis on how concerned IT managers should be. This comes almost exactly 3 years after Europe ran out. Image Credits: BBC [separator style_type="single|dotted" top_margin="5" bottom_margin="10" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="center" class="" id=""] Rising prices The older addressing system, called IPv4, was created when the net was being set up in the 1970s. The system can support up to 4.3 billion addresses but the massive growth of the online world has swiftly depleted this. The successor addressing system, known as IPv6, can handle a vast amount of addresses and is unlikely to ever run out. IPv6 has been available since 1999 but only now are large numbers of firms starting to use it. [separator style_type="single|dotted" top_margin="5" bottom_margin="10" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="center" class="" id=""] What is the problem? Just like people, in order for computers to talk to each other they must understand the same language or protocol. For the past 32 years, the protocol used on the internet has been Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). IPv4 allows for about 3.7 billion computers to exist on the internet, each with a unique address. This seems like a lot of computers, but over that time the internet has gone from a few computers in a few universities to almost every home, office and school. At the same time, rather than a family owning at most one computer, each person now owns several internet connected devices - its common for one person to own a laptop, smart phone, tablet and smart TV. Whilst you may think an internet connected kettle is a stupid idea, the "Internet of Things" is poised to take off and that will only increase the number of devices connected to the internet. Over the years, policy changes such as Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) have been employed to conserve addresses. And network address translation (NAT) has extended the number of devices that can be connected by allowing internal networks to reuse addresses. Estimates for the number of devices currently connected to the internet vary wildly from around 5 billion to 18 billion, with some forecasts suggesting that there will be as many as 25-75 billion internet connected devices in five years time. [separator style_type="single|dotted" top_margin="5" bottom_margin="10" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="center" class="" id=""] What is the solution? Some 17 years ago, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) was designed as a successor to IPv4. The IP address shortage had been foreseen and the new protocol was designed to be capable of supporting an almost unimaginable number of connected devices. The designers also learnt lessons from the existing protocols and used the opportunity to fix a few things that IPv4 got wrong and add a few enhancements. However, IPv6 and IPv4 are not compatible. A computer on an IPv4-only network cannot communicate with a server on an IPv6-only network. So the entire internet needs to upgrade. This has been gradually happening for well over a decade, already. [separator style_type="single|dotted" top_margin="5" bottom_margin="10" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="center" class="" id=""] What will become of IPv4? IPv4 isn't going away for the time being, and many services are already available using both IPv4 and IPv6. The most likely setup in the future will be for most networks to use both IPv4 and IPv6 concurrently, known as "dual stacking". The IPv4 addresses will often be hidden behind CGNAT systems, with reduced functionality, and be used to access remaining IPv4-only services. The IPv6 addresses will be used in preference wherever possible. Eventually, the cost of maintaining legacy IPv4 systems will outweigh the benefit of any remaining IPv4-only services. But this isn't likely to happen for decades - IPv4 will be around for a long time to come. While some companies, such as Google, have already switched to the new protocol, not all have done so. Continuing to adopt the ostrich approach, though, will not be an option for much longer. Article Credits: BBC, Opendium Cover Image Source: TechnewsToday [separator style_type="double" top_margin="20" bottom_margin="20" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="fa-chevron-down" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="center" class="" id=""] Must Read: 1. Googleâs New Parent Company Alphabet Has Killer URL, But What Is This Alphabet? 2. Top 10 Secrets About Facebook Revealed And You Must Know About It 3. Windows 10: Microsoft Announces New Operating System To Be Released Globally July 29 [separator style_type="double" top_margin="20" bottom_margin="20" sep_color="" border_size="" icon="fa-chevron-down" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color="" width="" alignment="center" class="" id=""] Feel free to Like, Comment & Share your ideas with us!
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