Ought oh IPV6 may be in your near future

[rhody]

Ought oh... IPV6 may be in your near future

BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11736394"

The internet could face years of instability as it moves to a new addressing system, one of the network's original architects has warned. Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, spoke as the UK was urged to begin using the new addressing system. With current addresses due to run out in 2012, nations and businesses must get on with switching, said Mr Cerf. During the switch internet links could become unreliable, making sites and services hard to reach, Mr Cerf said. "This has to happen or the internet will stop growing or will not be growable," he said of the move to the addressing system. The net has grown to its current size using version 4 of its addressing scheme (IPv4), which allows for about 4.3 billion addresses. Estimates suggest that this pool of addresses will be exhausted by the end of January 2012.

and

The net would not stop during the switch, said Mr Cerf, but access could get "spotty". That instability could last years, he suggested, as even search giant Google - his current employer - took three years to get its IPv6 network up and running. "There's work to be done," he said. "It's not massive work but it is meticulous work." Clock, BBC Time is running out for firms to get using the replacement addressing scheme Mr Cerf was the keynote speaker at a launch event for 6UK, a non-profit group set up to get UK businesses converting to the new addressing scheme. Currently only about 1% of data sent over the internet is wrapped in IPv6 packets, said Mr Cerf, adding that moving to using the bigger address space should now be a global priority. Some nations, such as China and the Czech Republic, had made great strides in using IPv6 but others had not even started. "There is turbulence coming," said Nigel Titley, chairman of RIPE, the body that hands out Europe's allocation of IPv4 addresses. He said it was only a matter of time before the shortfall of addresses started to hit business. Attempts to get more people online, close digital divisions or to boost e-commerce could all be hampered by a lack of addresses, Mr Titley sa

And who would have thought that your Domain Name tied to your IP address would be so valuable. I wonder what "Go Daddy's" business plans will be when this begins to happen. Will it devolve into: for available recyclable IP's, auction to the highest bidder until the instability issues are solved once and for all. Just speculation on this humble observer's part.

Rhody... :uhh:

P.S. Just in time to create a whole new growth industry to help address rising global unemployment, which would be a good thing.

 

[NobodySpecial]

It's irrelevant and has been for 10years - since NAT became popular.

When you buy Icouldnevermeetawomenlikedanicpatrick.com from godaddy they don't give you a unique IP address, neither does your cable operator when you connect your machine at home.
You only need one single IP address to server an unlimited number of sites with a virtual server.

The only shortage of address is due to universities being given large blocks of them back in the 80s, I used to have a lab full of machines all of which had a unique global address - when one address is enough for the whole of Google

Cerf and the rest of ICANN have been trying to push IPV6 since the 90s and nobody is biting

 

[Evo]

GoDaddy is just a registrar. They are just a company that, for a fee, will regisiter your choice of availble domain names, they do not own them. When you pay for a name to get registered, you really are only "renting" it for the period of time you pay for, if you forget to renew, you lose it.

In North America, the company that regulates domain names and IP addresses is ICANN, this is the company a registrar like GoDaddy goes to on your behalf.

ICANN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Corporation_for_Assigned_Names_and_Numbers

Registrars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar

And who would have thought that your Domain Name tied to your IP address would be so valuable

Actually, your domain name is not tied to your IP address. For example, if a company changes ISP's, they can keep their domain name, but their IP address will change, they will be given a new one from the block of addresses that the ISP has. Yes, it does require re-addressing internally, but most small companies can do with the 6 IP addresses they are given as part of the internet connection they purchase. Of course they can get more IP addresses if they need them (NAT reduces the number they need, since only IP addresses available to the public need to be real). Some of my clients petitioned for, and were granted entire Class C's.

 

[rhody]

GoDaddy is just a registrar. They are just a company that, for a fee, will regisiter your choice of availble domain names, they do not own them. When you pay for a name to get registered, you really are only "renting" it for the period of time you pay for, if you forget to renew, you lose it.

In North America, the company that regulates domain names and IP addresses is ICANN, this is the company a registrar like GoDaddy goes to on your behalf.

ICANN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Corporation_for_Assigned_Names_and_Numbers

Registrars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar

Actually, your domain name is not tied to your IP address. For example, if a company changes ISP's, they can keep their domain name, but their IP address will change, they will be given a new one from the block of addresses that the ISP has. Yes, it does require re-addressing internally, but most small companies can do with the 6 IP addresses they are given as part of the internet connection they purchase. Of course they can get more IP addresses if they need them (NAT reduces the number they need, since only IP addresses available to the public need to be real). Some of my clients petitioned for, and were granted entire Class C's.

Thanks Evo, NobodySpecial,

I wasn't sure about domain name => IP address. I knew you or someone in the know would settle the issue, if I understand what you and NobodySpecial are saying, there are large numbers of unused IP Addresses that could be scavenged by ICANN adding to the dwindling supply, no ?

Rhody...

 

[Evo]

Thanks Evo, NobodySpecial,

I wasn't sure about domain name => IP address. I knew you or someone in the know would settle the issue, if I understand what you and NobodySpecial are saying, there are large numbers of unused IP Addresses that could be scavenged by ICANN adding to the dwindling supply, no ?

Rhody...

That's correct. Of course, ultimately, it will become an issue and since those that currently control those IP addresses aren't likely to give them up, your article is correct. There is going to be a shortage.

 

[rhody]

That's correct. Of course, ultimately, it will become an issue and since those that currently control those IP addresses aren't likely to give them up, your article is correct. There is going to be a shortage.

I have a college buddy and his wife over this weekend, he is an IT manager and I mentioned the subject, over the 255 IP's (Class C) they have they are only using 3200 IP's, of the possible 65025 IP's possible (255*255). One would think that ICANN not want to being viewed globally as ICANT, lol, would ask the Class C users if they could turn in some and give some breathing room so to speak with the growing e-commerce demand. If demand was great then some type of lottery or awarding to the highest bidder could be instituted in the short term until the rest of the world became IPV6 compatible. Just a thought.

Rhody... (255.255.255.200), one of the last survivors, lol

 

[fss]

I have a college buddy and his wife over this weekend, he is an IT manager and I mentioned the subject, over the 255 IP's (Class C) they have they are only using 3200 IP's, of the possible 65025 IP's possible (255*255).

Er...what? A Class C network has 255 usable IP addresses, but over 2 million usable IP networks. I think you are getting your definitions confused, or you're just misusing them.

Eventually the lack of IPv4 addresses will become a real issue, but I think that the doomsday scenarios being presented are still premature. NAT and subnetting go a long way.

 

[rhody]

http://www.theinternetdigest.net/articles/ip-address-overview.html"

Class A
Intended for a small number of networks that had a large number of computers (hosts) attached. Class A IP Address have a value in the range 1...126 as the first octet. The values 0 and 127 are not available because they have special uses. Class A addresses use the first octet to identify the network which means that 126 addresses are usable, each of which can support 16,777,216 computers (hosts).

Class B
Intended for some networks that had an intermediate number of computers (hosts) attached. Class B IP Addresses have a value in the range 128...191 as the first octet. Class B addresses use the first two octets to identify the network which means that 16,320 addresses are usable, each of which can support 65,536 computers (hosts).

Class C
Intended for a large number of networks that would have a small (relatively) number of computers (hosts) attached. Class C IP Addresses have a value in the range 192...223 as the first octet. Class C addresses use the first three octets to identify the network which means that 2,080,800 addresses (networks) are possible, each of which can support 254 computers (hosts).

I was referring to Class B versus C and incorrect on some of the details in the description, now corrected above, as pointed out by fss, setting the record straight.

Rhody...

 

[rhody]

Follow up to this story, http://www.betanews.com/article/Last-of-IPv4-addresses-assigned-as-focus-turns-to-IPv6/1296765892"

Whereas IPv4 only had 4.3 billion addresses due to its 12-digit structure, IPv6's 39-digit structure dramatically increases the number of available addresses and makes exhaustion practically impossible for the foreseeable future.

"No one was caught off guard by this," ICANN president and CEO Rod Beckstrom said in a statement. "Adoption of IPv6 is now of paramount importance, since it will allow the Internet to continue its amazing growth and foster the global innovation we've all come to expect."

Many ISPs and companies have already been working for quite some time on IPv6 implementation, so this milestone will likely go unnoticed for quite awhile. However, inaction is not a possibility -- every connected device needs an IP address to communicate, and without moving to IPv6 address sharing must occur.

While in some cases this would work in theory, it may cause headaches for the routing of IP-to-IP traffic (VoIP, etc.). This makes that option only a temporary fix at best.

The thought of hawking unused internet IP Addresses immediately comes to mind, and I dare say some head scratching by everyone with a large financial stake in the problem is my second thought. I know a number of growth jobs will be created out of the transition to IPV6, but the question is how many and where, because new routers will be needed as well as software to manage them. It should be an interesting ride. For anyone closer to the issue, the next post is all yours.

Reuter's new story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/03/us-internetaddresses-idINTRE7128AH20110203"

The solution is IPv6, a new standard for Internet addresses that should provide a lot more room for growth: There are 340 undecillion IPv6 addresses available. That's 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses.

"If all the space of IPv4 were to be sized and compared to a golf ball, a similar-sized comparison for IPv6 would be the size of the sun," said John Curan, the CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, one of five nonprofit organizations that manage Internet addresses for particular regions of the world.

Just in case you're worried, Curan added that "we don't ever intend to see another transition."

For companies with websites, the transition to IPv6 means configuring their computer equipment to support the new standard rather than upgrading hardware, Curan said. Those that don't could see the performance of their sites slowed down, and potentially cut off to some users in the future.

Laptops, smartphones and other Web-connected gadgets, as well as Web browsers, already support IPv6, though Curan notes that according to some estimates less than 1 percent of Internet users may not have their equipment configured properly and will need to adjust their settings in the months ahead, as websites increasingly adopt the new standard.

Can you say growth industry ?!

Rhody...

P.S. A suggestion. Turn the problem over to those physics curmudgeon's at CERN, I am sure they could come up with creative ideas and inputs to the slew of problems (as yet unknown and unanticipated) to be addressed.

 

[rhody]

http://www.betanews.com/article/Bad...-its-coming-sooner-than-you-think/1297702377"

News story dated today, following my line of thought in my last post, surprise, surprise, some new facts first, see Stephan Lagerholm's chart (thumbnail) from the article below.
I didn't know there were five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), but I do now.

Here's what we know will happen in the short term: There are 5 RIRs (Regional Internet Registries) for different parts of the world -- AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, and the RIPE NCC. These organizations get address blocks from the IANA and dole them out to ISPs and other entities in their regions based on their own policies.

and

Incidentally tomorrow, Tuesday, February 15, is World IPv6 Day. The Internet Society is trying to arrange a 24 hour test run of IPv6 with the various parties who would need to be involved, generally websites and network operators. I guess we have to start somewhere, and some companies -- Google comes to mind -- have been ahead of the curve on this. But Google's IPv6 content does me no good if my networking equipment and ISP don't support IPv6. And they don't. If you're a normal consumer, go try to do better than I did: Comcast and Verizon have limited tests of IPv6 going on, but if you're not in a test area you're SOL, and go try to buy a consumer router that supports IPv6.

and my observation in my last post about selling remaining IP's or companies turning them in for profit, how about this twist, becoming ISP's themselves !

Back in the old days they handed out /8 blocks (16777216 addresses) pretty casually, and if you look at the map of them you'll see quite a few allocated to entities which probably don't need all that space. Lots to the Defense Department and other governmental entities, big companies: GE, Apple, Ford, HP, DEC (in other words HP), AT&T, Prudential Securities, duPont, Merck, Halliburton -- you get the idea.

It's possible that some of those companies could become ISPs in order to monetize this valuable asset.

Bingo ! Remember prohibition and the speak-easy (from history books anyway) , how about, "/8 block leftover easy's... for a price..."

Rhody...

 

[rhody]

http://mashable.com/2011/06/09/global-internet-traffic-infographic/"

Global Internet traffic is expected to quadruple between 2010 and 2015, according to data provided to Mashable by Cisco.

By that time, nearly 3 billion people will be using the Internet — more than 40% of the world’s projected population. On average, there will be more than two Internet connections for each person on Earth, driven by the proliferation of web-enabled mobile devices.

Internet traffic is projected to approach 1 zettabyte per year in 2015 — that’s equivalent of all the digital data in existence in 2010. Regionally speaking, traffic is expected to more than double in the Middle East and Africa, where there will be an average of 0.9 devices per person for a projected population of 1.39 billion. Latin America is close behind, with a 48% increase in traffic and an estimated 2.1 devices per person among a population of 620 million.

The rest of the world will experience more moderate growth in terms of traffic, but the number of devices per person is forecast to increase significantly. By 2015, there will be an average of 5.8 devices per person in North America, 5.4 in Japan and 4.4 in western Europe.
Somewhat surprisingly, it is neither mobile phones nor tablets that are expected to grow the most in the next four years. Rather, flat panel televisions will experience the greatest production increase globally, up 1,063% from 2010, followed by tablets (750%), digital photo frames (600%) and ereaders (550%). The number of non-smartphones and smartphones is expected to increase by 17% and 194% worldwide, respectively.

So the need for IP addresses is going through the roof and will continue to do so at an ever accelerating rate... enough said...

Rhody...