[denny]

Holy crap...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/07/23/internet.addresses/index.html?hpt=T2

[a10t2]

I wonder how much time going to /12 allocation blocks would buy us? There have to be a ton of providers who aren't using a million addresses.

Wasn't IPv6 supposed to be mandatory like a decade ago anyway?

[dbeechum]

Eh, people have been worried about this for a good long time (hence IPv6's decade long travels through space)

The biggest key is that people are going to have to be more clever about natting and using wildcat spaces. Hell, people should be doing that for security purposes anyways.

[theDarkSide]

Yeah...We should be on IP8 or IP10 by now

I remember hearing about this years ago.  I had a full Class C block for my internet connection years ago.  When I switched providers, I wasn't able to port them over.  Never used them all anyways, but it was nice to have...kind off a status thing.

By the way, I loved the Y2K hype...I got about $250,000 in capital allocated to me to upgrade my network and systems that would "not" work after December 31, 1999.  I even had stuff left over...ah the good old days.

[nicneufeld]

"IP addresses are numbers assigned to all of the devices -- computers, phones, cars, wireless sensors, etc. -- that log on to the internet."

Big difference between public and private IPs.  To imply that every internet capable device consumes or ever even temporarily dons a public IP is kinda silly! 

I for one would rather see the internet world adapt to IPv4 with more NAT usage, than for us to adopt v6.  Hexadecimal just doesn't lend itself to memory.  I've memorized hundreds of IP addresses over the years, but by comparison, not a single MAC address, which is similar to an IPv6 address in difficulty of memorization.  And with hex, subnetting on a sheet of scrap paper is just going to break my brain! 

[Thirsty_Monk]

Call me old fashioned but I do not believe that my fridge (or any other applience) needs to be connected to the Internet and collect info about my snck eating habits. 

[beersk]

2012 here we come...

[denny]

Call me old fashioned but I do not believe that my fridge (or any other applience) needs to be connected to the Internet and collect info about my snck eating habits. 

^^^^This!

[glitterbug]

Call me old fashioned but I do not believe that my fridge (or any other applience) needs to be connected to the Internet and collect info about my snck eating habits. 

^^^^This!

Think bigger, like adjusting the power usage based on parameters from the "smart grid" and the frequency of door activity. You will be able to save money. Data on your snack habits is just a nice bonus 

[Hokerer]

Call me old fashioned but I do not believe that my fridge (or any other applience) needs to be connected to the Internet and collect info about my snck eating habits. 

^^^^This!

Think bigger, like adjusting the power usage based on parameters from the "smart grid" and the frequency of door activity. You will be able to save money. Data on your snack habits is just a nice bonus 

better yet, it can warn you when your supply of beer in said fridge is getting low

[richardt]

The biggest key is that people are going to have to be more clever about natting and using wildcat spaces. Hell, people should be doing that for security purposes anyways. 

"natting"?  "Wildcat spaces"?

What do these terms mean?

[loopy]

rfc 1918.  ip addresses fall into classes, of those a few ranges are reserved for "private" non routable. 
10.x.x.x
172.16.x.x
192.168.x.x

You may recognize them, they mean they are local addresses and by extension only have relevance on a local network.  they are not Internet addresses and thus they need not be unique.  Millions of business's and homes all across the world use these addresses for the addressing then they "nat" or network address translate into a real address.

Likely the linksys or 2wire router at your house does this, takes the local network - which may be 1,2 or 200 devices and translates them into a single address.  natting reduces the amount of ip addresses needed because not every "device" on the internet needs an ip.  Your iphone or blackberry is also on a large 10.x.x.x network, and accesses the internet via logical gateways.  same concept. 

--
as for running out of ipv4 space, yawn.  been said for over a decade.  it will happen tho, but it wont be due to us, nor is there much we can do about it.  the growth in india and china will consume it.  Luckily the ipv6 path is well founded, with good support in routers and operating systems for nearly a decade.  as those countries come upon the limitations -- they -- not us -- will be forced to go the ipv6 route to continue growth. 

[Hokerer]

The biggest key is that people are going to have to be more clever about natting and using wildcat spaces. Hell, people should be doing that for security purposes anyways. 

"natting"?  "Wildcat spaces"?

What do these terms mean?

NAT stands for Network Address Translation.  It's what most of your home DSL/Cable modems use.  They generally use "private" ip addresses (meaning addresses that never get seen out on the Internet itself, for instance, 10.anything and 192.168.anything and some 172. address space).  Your home modem gives you usually 254 addresses for your PCs and whatnot to use.  The modem translates (NAT's) your private address to a single "public" address that is routeable on the Internet.  That way, your servcie provider only needs to use one "public" address (the ones they claim are runing out) to service up to 254 devices in your home.

As for "wildcat spaces", never heard that term.  Probably mean "wildcard" aka "subnet mask".  Smarter wildcarding would mean that they never would have given, say, IBM every address that begins with 9.anything.  They dished them out like candy in the old days and now they're paying the piper.

[dbeechum]

Nailed the NAT.

Wildcat is how we've always referred to the private spaces created by a properly NATted network. (It's the updating of the wildcat mines type of thing)

[beerocd]

You guys need to stop this NOW! This is seriously impairing my enjoyment of this place.