Father Of The Internet: 'Web Is Running Out Of Addresses'

Father Of The Internet: 'Web Is Running Out Of Addresses'

technology.timesonline.co.uk

The world is about to run out of the internet addresses that allow computers to identify each other and communicate, the man who invented the system has told The Times.

Vint Cerf, the “father of the internet” and one of the world’s leading computer scientists, said that businesses and consumers needed to act now to switch to the next generation of net addresses. Unless preparations were made now, he said, some computers might not be able to go online and the connectivity of the internet might be damaged.

Mr Cerf said that internet service providers in particular needed to prepare and that time was running out for a smooth transition.

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Pretty wild. The net is running out of addresses?

So in comes the Internet, part 2?

This should be sure to get the conspiracy theories thrown into full effect, haha.

I wonder how this new system will work out, and who will be behind its institution?

A new system, called IPv6, has been ready for implementation for more than a decade.

Under IPv6, each address has 128 bits and so provides 340 trillion, trillion, trillion different addresses - that is 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. It is assumed that this will meet humanity’s needs for decades to come.

technology.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

That's why the invented IPv4

We are not running outta web addresses.

Fortunately I think we'll be ok. IPv4 was the original IP scheme which gives 4,294,967,296 addresses. If it weren't for NAT (Network Address Translation) then estimates say we would have completely run out a couple years back (sorry, I can't find the exact year).

In my opinion, IPv6 is looking pretty good. A lot of the new computers/ etc that are coming out now have dual capacity for both IPv4 and 6, so there won't be any worries with a switchover.

(gee, couldn't they have done that with cable?)

The 128bit concept has been around for a while but what I don't understand (even with degrees in networking,OS,hardware,telecom,fiber/copper wire and pc hardware) is why they don't dupe the 255.255.255.255 max number system with a emulated 64 bit networking extension for the people running 32bit operating systems. It would be so simple to do, I could almost write it myself.
That would allow twice the current IP addresses with no extra hardware.

I dont know much about IP routing, but would it be possible to throw alpha chars in there after some light structure change? i would love my ip to be

192.168.1.wtf

reply to post by drsmooth23


Hehe, I like it

IPv6 is, in theory, supposed to allow for letters in the IP address. You could get really creative if you get to use 4 whole letters