- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,378
Today the well of addresses on the Internet officially runs dry, but there's no need to panic. The exhaustion has been known about for years, and new addresses—which are designed not to run out for a long, long time—are already in operation.
The Number Resource Organization (NRO), and industry group made up of five regional Internet provider registries, held an event in Montevideo, Uruguay, today where members announced that it had today handed out the last of the available addresses on the old system.
The old system, called IPv4, uses a system of numbers, typically separated by decimals, that even casual users of the Internet would probably recognize (if your unsure, check your computer or phone's network settings for numbers like "192.162.2.235"). IPv4 had about 4.3 billion addresses, which ran out more rapidly once mobile devices with Internet connections became commonplace.
Now all new Internet addresses will use IPv6, a system that has more numbers and characters, and is said to have enough spots for 340 trillion, trillion, trillion unique IP addresses. Equipment that uses IPv6 has been in use since 1999.
Source
The Number Resource Organization (NRO), and industry group made up of five regional Internet provider registries, held an event in Montevideo, Uruguay, today where members announced that it had today handed out the last of the available addresses on the old system.
The old system, called IPv4, uses a system of numbers, typically separated by decimals, that even casual users of the Internet would probably recognize (if your unsure, check your computer or phone's network settings for numbers like "192.162.2.235"). IPv4 had about 4.3 billion addresses, which ran out more rapidly once mobile devices with Internet connections became commonplace.
Now all new Internet addresses will use IPv6, a system that has more numbers and characters, and is said to have enough spots for 340 trillion, trillion, trillion unique IP addresses. Equipment that uses IPv6 has been in use since 1999.
Source
