Guest
Guest
Foreword
An IPv4 address is what we are currently using as an IP address, and looks similar to '124.213.6.43'.
There has always only been a certain amount of public IPv4 addresses that could be assigned to each network, and we're slowly creeping up on that limit and could run out of IP addresses sooner than you think.
Statistics
The closest approximation of public IPv4 addresses available is roughly 4.3 billion[1], and with over a hundred IPv4 addresses getting assigned every 5 seconds, the exhaustion of addresses could come as soon March, 2011[2].
"We are approaching the time when there will be no new IP addresses to assign to new Internet users. At least there will be no more of the kind of addresses the Internet has been using for most of its existence."
�Scott Bradner, on the topic of IPv4 exhaustion.
Conclusion
It's been mentioned that we will need to migrate from IPv4 to IPv6 addresses (IPv6 addresses are much longer and look something like '2607:f0d0:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf'), more information can be found here, or by simply googling "IPv4 exhaustion" (although a lot of the content includes networking jargon and would come across a little confusing to the average internet user).
Happy reading.
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[1]http://www.wordiq.com/definition/IPv4_address_exhaustion
[2]http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/index.html
I added these references to avoid having to place tags all over my post.[/size]
An IPv4 address is what we are currently using as an IP address, and looks similar to '124.213.6.43'.
There has always only been a certain amount of public IPv4 addresses that could be assigned to each network, and we're slowly creeping up on that limit and could run out of IP addresses sooner than you think.
Statistics
The closest approximation of public IPv4 addresses available is roughly 4.3 billion[1], and with over a hundred IPv4 addresses getting assigned every 5 seconds, the exhaustion of addresses could come as soon March, 2011[2].
"We are approaching the time when there will be no new IP addresses to assign to new Internet users. At least there will be no more of the kind of addresses the Internet has been using for most of its existence."
�Scott Bradner, on the topic of IPv4 exhaustion.
Conclusion
It's been mentioned that we will need to migrate from IPv4 to IPv6 addresses (IPv6 addresses are much longer and look something like '2607:f0d0:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf'), more information can be found here, or by simply googling "IPv4 exhaustion" (although a lot of the content includes networking jargon and would come across a little confusing to the average internet user).
Happy reading.
-
[1]http://www.wordiq.com/definition/IPv4_address_exhaustion
[2]http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/index.html
I added these references to avoid having to place tags all over my post.[/size]