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Author Topic: All IPv4 addresses allocated - why it isn't a problem  (Read 2181 times)

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Offline PiruTopic starter

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All IPv4 addresses allocated - why it isn't a problem
« on: February 08, 2011, 09:58:19 AM »
As you might have read all IPv4 addresses have now been allocated. There however are some misconceptions as to what this means: Many seem to think that it is also end of the IPv4 network and that unless if the OS and software of your choice supports IPv6 you couldn't connect to internet. This notion is false.

IPv4 addresses have now all been reserved, but they're far from being all used. Huge spans of the IPv4 range were allocated by large corporations during the early years of internet. These companies have now precious commodity to sell, and a market of 3rd party IPv4 address ranges will emerge.

While new IPv4 addresses cannot be allocated any more, it doesn't mean that they wouldn't be available to end users. ISPs have the address spaces they've allocated earlier, and will continue to use them. IPv4 isn't going to disappear anytime soon, either. Large companies and service providers (such as say google) cannot switch to IPv6 alone anytime soon. They'd be shutting off huge portion of the internet by doing that. It is very likely that IPv4 will be used for decades, still.

Even if your ISP would eventually switch to IPv6, they'd still be offering a way to connect older IPv4 systems. This could be provided by the DSL boxen, by doing a transparent translation between IPv4 <-> IPv6. Full switch to IPv6 requires that both the TCP/IP and the software support the new addressing scheme. There are ton of old software that won't work with IPv6. This is yet another reason why such emulation layer will remain part of the internet experience for decades.

In short: You will be able to connect to internet by using your old Miami, AmiTCP or other "old" TCP/IP stack just fine. There's no hurry to get native IPv6 support.
 

Offline PiruTopic starter

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Re: All IPv4 addresses allocated - why it isn't a problem
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2011, 12:31:08 PM »
Quote from: Colani1200;613932
I think from the moment on where the first (important) services on the internet are IPv6 only (and the moment will come for sure), we will see quite a fast erosion regarding the acceptance and propagation of IPv4.

No business will risk losing customers by terminating IPv4 services before major IPv6 penetration. This won't happen anytime soon. The impending doom of IPv4 and the IPv6 proliferation has been preached since 90s. In reality miniscule fraction of services are available in IPv6 currently. We'll see how b0rked and scattered the IPv6 currently is during the world IPv6 day.