• Networking

  • The Internet Is Full - Countdown to IPv4 X-days.

For those of you unfamiliar with the issue and how the internet works (in simple terms) each and every connected device on the internet needs an IP address. It's like a phone number, basically a unique number given to your computer, mobile phone, or whatever, whenever it is connected to the internet
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The current numbering system we're using is called IPv4. This system contains about 4,000,000,000 unique available addresses in total. At the time of writing, about 2% is unallocated. At the speed things are going, that will be empty within a matter of days. Luckily this development hasn't come as a shock to the people who help maintain the internet, so there's a new version available called IPv6.
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But what if you're stuck on some lame ISP with incompetent and slow moving people? Do you really have to wait for them to get going? Ideally, yes, but.. It's possible to tunnel IPv6 over IPv4. It's like dialing a 8 digit number first, and then, when the other end picks up the phone, you dial a 12 digit number in addition. Wikipedia maintains a list of IPv6 tunnel brokers, so if this lack of IP addresses is starting to bother you, or you just want it now, go there and check it out.

In June 2010, Google held a Google IPv6 Implementors Conference. At that event, Facebook announced that it had begun to use IPv6.

In his opening remarks to the conference, Google's Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf urges ISPs to move to IPv6, so that a "black market" for Internet addresses won't occur.

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Read Full Article Here.
First of all Vint Cerf isnt a simple man.
In many conferences here in Lebanon IPv6 was mentioned but as far as i have read that it needs hardware support on the ISP side.
One of the huge benefits would be a decrease in the prices of Fixed IPs because v6 is going to have a gigantic pool of IPs.
When IPv6 will take over, Windows XP will be useless and every Windows user will have to upgrade to Vista or Win7? That's good news for Microsoft :P
Kassem wroteWhen IPv6 will take over, Windows XP will be useless and every Windows user will have to upgrade to Vista or Win7? That's good news for Microsoft :P
عملتلي بالقلب

IPv6 offers global end-to-end connectivity for peer-to-peer and other new applications and scenarios. The Windows family of operating systems starting from Windows XP with Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003 already supports IPv6, as will Windows Vista.

^ http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/network/IPv6_IGD.mspx


also: http://ipv6int.net/systems/windows_xp-ipv6.html
LOL ok sorry for the confusion, I thought Windows XP doesn't support IPv6 and it's my university's lab fault because in my Networking lab we couldn't use IPv6. So apparently there aren't any SP's installed on the PC's.
Note when they say about 2% is unallocated it means 2% of addresses are not claimed by anyone.
ISPs may be allocated blocks of millions of IP addresses, while only be using a small percentage of these.
AFAIK that article does not contain any indication of how many IP addresses are IN USE and how many are free.
Still, the problem of IP address shortage is a very real one.
rolf wroteNote when they say about 2% is unallocated it means 2% of addresses are not claimed by anyone.
ISPs may be allocated blocks of millions of IP addresses, while only be using a small percentage of these.
AFAIK that article does not contain any indication of how many IP addresses are IN USE and how many are free.
Still, the problem of IP address shortage is a very real one.
Very true. I read a while ago that some ISP returned one million or ten million unused IP addresses (I don't remember the exact number so it could be much less than one million).
Kassem wroteLOL ok sorry for the confusion, I thought Windows XP doesn't support IPv6 and it's my university's lab fault because in my Networking lab we couldn't use IPv6. So apparently there aren't any SP's installed on the PC's.
Yes Windows XP didn't support IPv6 first. But then microsoft released patches to fix the issue. I strongly recommend all those use Windows XP to upgrade to SP3 as soon as possible.
5 days later
Upgrading to SP3 is a dangerous matter though if you have a pirated version of XP please be aware of that, because especially that Sevice Pack is packed with such a huge crapload of Spyware that the shit hits the fan if you are not carefully looking what you install....