Story here .

Although in the future there is no doubt that it will become a problem, I suspect that things are going to slow down for the next 10 years to the extent that decisions regarding internet "space" are mute. John C.

There has been talk about running out of IP addresses for quite a while and, as the article said IPV6 should handle this for the foreseeable future. Certainly for our lifetimes.

During the dot-com boom there was a lot of talk about "smart" appliances. Your refrigerator would "see" that you were running out of milk and reorder it online from your grocery etc.

Well if you start handing out IP addresses to toasters and blenders and sexual aides AND if everyone in the civilized world started doing this AND unless you're assigning them private addresses (in the 192.168. etc range) then we would quickly run out of IPV4 addresses.

But with the rise of private networks with only a few Public IP addresses we should be OK for the next few years. If we do start to run out then IPV6 is developed and available for implementation.

My $.02


Sam

This issue keeps coming up in the media every few months. My opinion is that with careful assignment and usage of existing IP assignments, that there is additional life left in IPv4. Granted, I am not bashing IPv6, I think it is wonderful on paper but a lot of gear (think consumer routers and other networking gear) isn't IPv6 capable from what I can tell.

There's also still quite a bit of unallocated space or space reserved for whatever purpose.

Not being up to speed on these new-fangled typewriters, how hard will it be to transition from v4 to v6? Is it a 'has to all happen at the same time', or can it 'upgrade as equipment fails' with a future deadline? Somewhat like HDTV, only with a FIRM ( ) deadline. John C.

Well Windows XP (SP2 I believe) added IPv6 support. SP3 I believe it is turned on by default. Vista has it on by default. Windows 7 I assume as well. OSX, I am not sure but WP says yes. Most linux variants have IPv6 support as well.

It is supposed to work side-by-side until IPv6 gets rolling enough that IPv4 gets cut loose. Great part about IPv6 is no more NAT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

Just out of curiosity, why can't something be designed to use MAC (Physical) addresses? It appears to me as though there are enough of them that allows precise determination of a particular device on the net.

IPv6 is coming...it is just a matter of time. In addition to the massive increase in IP addresses it also has an expanded header that will tag the packet as being voice, video or data which will allow for prioritization of the packet...which will lead to voice and video over IP that should work well.

Having said that before it can happen every router will need to be IPv6 compatible......so it will be a while but the applications are driving the change and it will happen.

What happened to IPv5?

it happened. https://www.wwwdotcom.com/

Thats funny Mark!!

IPv5 was an experimental network used for streaming video and audio. It was supposed to overlay onto IPv4 but it never left development.

There is no hierarchy with MAC addresses and therefore no way to route them. There is nothing in a MAC address to tie it to a particular network, and no way for an ISP to assign MAC addresses dynamically.

For the average person IPv6 is a non issue. It isn't like the HDTV broadcasting where one system is completely turned off. You won't have to start using IPv6 for your home networking anytime soon.

To answer Lightninghorse's question; it's a massive pain in the ass. :-)

Happily, Clinton and hawk82 are right; several other solutions are keeping it from being less than a 1 year issue, and probably 2.

TexasTech: the reason we don't do that is that they're not *grouped*, which makes routing nearly impossible...

They just need to bit the bullet as it were and put IPv6 into full use.