“Return to sender, Address unknown…
… No such number, No such zone.” Elvis Presley, “Return to Sender” (1962)
Are YOU ready?
I’m NOT! Actually, my Comcast Internet service is not.
Likely this week or next, the central supplier of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) will pass out the last IP (version 4) addresses at the “wholesale” level. The clock is ticking toward that moment when IP version 4 addresses will all be used up, doled out to corporations, Internet Service Providers, and other owners.
“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Oops! Lost control for a moment…! 
I have to laugh when I think of a least one of my former executives who advocated widespread use of IP addresses for EVERYTHING (think – every soft drink machine, washing machine, EVERYTHING)!
Well, not with IPv4 addresses, anyway….
For those who like “the carrot and the stick approach,” running out of IPv4 addresses has had almost no “carrot,” but now seems to wield a bigger stick than the one carried by “Teddy” Roosevelt.
CNET quotes a Google engineer involved in the transition to IPv6:
“Many are waiting for a ‘killer application’ for IPv6. This is a misconception,” said Lorenzo Colitti, the Google engineer overseeing the search giant’s years-long transition to IPv6, in a 2010 talk. “The killer application of IPv6 is the survival of the open Internet as we know it.”
A graph in the article, credited to Google, says that only about 0.2% of Google users “are equipped to use IPv4 technology that will relieve growth pressures on the Internet.”
Although many people expect disruptions as the IPv6 transitions take place, “the Net won’t collapse.” There. Don’t you feel reassured now?
There is a limit of 4.3 billion IP addresses with IPv4 that arose from decision made in 1977 by Vint Cerf, who is now an Internet evangelist at Google. Cerf decided to use 32-bit Internet addresses, but 2 to the 32nd power is about 4.3 billion, which looked a lot BIGGER in 1977, in the early days of the Internet, than it does today.
Cerf told journalists in Sydney, Australia recently:
In the 1990s, Internet engineers developed IPv6 which has precisely 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses. (Note to future Internet archaeologists: We actually thought that this will be ENOUGH for awhile. )
And, of course, YOU GUESSED IT…! IPv6 is not COMPATIBLE with IPv4!
Well, you can read the substantial additional detail about the plan, etc., in the CNET article!
Suffice it to say that the Internet Society, a standards and advocacy group, is helping to organize World IPv6 Day on June 8, 2011, to wrestle the IPv6 “bull by the horns,” or, as I usually phrase it, “It’s time that we grabbed the bull by the TAIL and faced the situation!”
On World IPv6 Day, drinks will be served! (Make mine a double, or a good California red wine.)
You can test your IPv6 connectivity HERE.
As for me, no IPv6 address was detected. No problems are anticipated for me with this browser at this location on World IPv6 Day. I appear to be able to browse the IPv4 Internet ONLY. My DNS server (“possibly run by your ISP” [oh yes, it is!]) appears to have no access to the IPv6 Internet, or is not configured to use it. “This may in the future restrict your ability to reach IPv6-only sites.”
Sleep peacefully tonight. They’re working on it.
(Note added February 3, 2011: But don’t sleep too LONG…! The last of the IPv4 addresses were allocated TODAY! My! That was fast! )
-Bill at
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