Internet will run out of addresses in two years.

**rome9t9** · 5 November, 2009, 01:47 AM

Just a piece of info i found on yahoo which said Internet will run out of web addresses in 2 yrs if its not switched from IPv4 to IPv6.

Source

can anyone tell the difference between IPv4 and IPv6? n00b here..

**amol_cool** · 5 November, 2009, 04:08 AM

Difference between IPv4 and IPv6: IPv6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Pacman131** · 5 November, 2009, 04:23 AM

The problem is with all the companies who are buying up domains so know one can get their hands on them. Plus a lot of the keyword domains are copyright protected, you can thank big business for all of this.

**rome9t9** · 5 November, 2009, 04:27 AM

Originally Posted by amol_cool

Difference between IPv4 and IPv6: IPv6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My brain flashed a BSoD on reading it..please explain it in simple language

**amol_cool** · 5 November, 2009, 04:50 AM

Originally Posted by rome9t9

My brain flashed a BSoD on reading it..please explain it in simple language

Let me give you an example.

192.168.000.001 is an example of IPv4 address. It consists of 4 groups of digits each containing 3 digits. This ONE IP address denotes ONE computer in the internet. Now since the number of unique addresses that can you make such way will be finite and hence will limit the total number of computers connected in the internet. Each computer in the internet has to have his unique IP address. And if we run up with all these unique addresses we cannot assign a new one and hence no new computer can be connected to the internet.

To overcome this problem, a new version of IP addresses called IPv6 was evolved which contains eight groups of four hexadecimal digits like:

2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334

Now obviously, the number of unique addresses that could be made using are in billions and hence it is necessary for everyone to eventually upgrade to this system.

I hope it clears now

**Coastercraze** · 5 November, 2009, 06:58 AM

Yeah I think Hurricane Electric was the one who came up with that theory.

All in all, the only real difference is adding the letter's A through F (making it Hexadecimal) and extending it out. So instead of 12 places we'll have 32 allowing for a ton more addresses!

**garfish** · 5 November, 2009, 08:44 AM

maybe 12 - 20 years later. as long as there's network address translation [nat] companies wont shift to ipv6.

**Kovich** · 5 November, 2009, 11:31 AM

And then eventually that, too, will run out and we'll have to devise another solution.

We constantly seek short-term solutions. Instead of finding something that will be suitable for now, we should find something that will always be suitable.

**ruben** · 5 November, 2009, 13:09 PM

Originally Posted by Pacman131

The problem is with all the companies who are buying up domains so know one can get their hands on them. Plus a lot of the keyword domains are copyright protected, you can thank big business for all of this.

He meant IP addresses :P.

Originally Posted by Kovich

And then eventually that, too, will run out and we'll have to devise another solution.

We constantly seek short-term solutions. Instead of finding something that will be suitable for now, we should find something that will always be suitable.

then we will have to upgrade to IPv8

**bogart** · 5 November, 2009, 21:21 PM

Originally Posted by Kovich

And then eventually that, too, will run out and we'll have to devise another solution.

We constantly seek short-term solutions. Instead of finding something that will be suitable for now, we should find something that will always be suitable.

Yeah. Like using two digit dates and then having a 'Year 2000 Problem'