We've finally run out of IPv4 addresses

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,256   +192
Staff member

In early 2011, the global Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) set aside the remaining blocks of IPv4 address space for the five North American Internet registries to use. Since that time, we’ve been hearing forecast after forecast predicting precisely when the bank of IPv4 addresses would dry up.

This past May, for example, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) revealed that there were only 3.4 million addresses left for the region and that they expected them to all be spoken for sometime this summer.

ARIN missed the summer target period but not by much: we’re now officially out of IPv4 addresses (yes, for real this time).

Pioneers of the Internet created the IPv4 specification and its 4.3 billion unique addresses way back in 1981. At that time, it seemed improbable that we’d ever deplete that many addresses but then again, few had the insight to recognize just how profound an impact the Internet would have on our future.

The most recent version of the Internet Protocol – IPv6 – was approved in 1998 although adoption has been relatively slow up to this point. Running out of addresses this time around legitimately shouldn’t be a concern, even as we stare down an IoT future.

IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long which increase the number of available addresses to 340 undecillion (that’s the number 340 followed by 36 zeroes). Just how big of a number is that? As it turns out, that’s enough to supply every single atom on our planet with its own IP address.

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IT'S THE Y2K BUG ALL OVER AGAIN!

And what was the issue with IPv6? Basically every consumer router/modem is able to deal with IPv6, so that leaves ISP/businesses who are still stuck with ancient hardware?
 
The only people used to seeing numbers that big are Apple accountants when they look at the credit side of their ledger.
 
Just for a visual:

without commas:
340000000000000000000000000000000000000

with commas:
340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Without commas:
0x333430303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030

With commas:
0x3334302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c303030

;) Sorry, I couldn't resist it. It could have been binary ASCII 'though.
 
IT'S THE Y2K BUG ALL OVER AGAIN!

And what was the issue with IPv6? Basically every consumer router/modem is able to deal with IPv6, so that leaves ISP/businesses who are still stuck with ancient hardware?

Most modern computers support IPv6, but not all routers do, neither does a lot of old VoIP hardware (which dates back about a decade) doesn't support it - a lot of big businesses or government departments still use this as they take a bloody long time to change anything.
I think any SIP based service supports IPv6 as long as the hardware does too.
On the commercial side, I know that any BT home hub before the Home Hub 3 doesn't support it, I can't remember if the 4 does or not.
 
Just for a visual:

without commas:
340000000000000000000000000000000000000

with commas:
340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Without commas:
0x333430303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030

With commas:
0x3334302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c303030

;) Sorry, I couldn't resist it. It could have been binary ASCII 'though.

I see what you did there...
 
Just for a visual:

without commas:
340000000000000000000000000000000000000

with commas:
340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Without commas:
0x333430303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030303030

With commas:
0x3334302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c3030302c303030

;) Sorry, I couldn't resist it. It could have been binary ASCII 'though.


Damn geeks!
 
IT'S THE Y2K BUG ALL OVER AGAIN!

And what was the issue with IPv6? Basically every consumer router/modem is able to deal with IPv6, so that leaves ISP/businesses who are still stuck with ancient hardware?

Most modern computers support IPv6, but not all routers do, neither does a lot of old VoIP hardware (which dates back about a decade) doesn't support it - a lot of big businesses or government departments still use this as they take a bloody long time to change anything.
I think any SIP based service supports IPv6 as long as the hardware does too.
On the commercial side, I know that any BT home hub before the Home Hub 3 doesn't support it, I can't remember if the 4 does or not.
That, probably, explains why my ISP has yet to support it.
 
I wonder how long this time around it'll take to run low on v6 addresses. In the future we'll have many more types of devices IP connected than we do now--many of which I bet we never imagined becoming so.

No one uses scientific notation anymore?
Scientific notation would be 3.4 x 10^38. :)
Engineering notation is 340 x 10^36.
I've hated engineering notation ever since I was forced to use it in an electrical circuit analysis course >.>
 
I wonder how long this time around it'll take to run low on v6 addresses. In the future we'll have many more types of devices IP connected than we do now--many of which I bet we never imagined becoming so.


I've hated engineering notation ever since I was forced to use it in an electrical circuit analysis course >.>

It would be interesting to know why. For me it is easier to read 200*10^-6 as 200 micro-whatever than reading 2*10^-4.

Damn geeks!

Just for those that may be interested, it took me to reply less than 2 minutes, programming this in Python (code observations appreciated, that could reduce codelines):
Code:
def str2hex(phrase):
    hexArr = []
    for l in phrase:
        hexArr.append(hex(ord(l))[2:])
    return ''.join(hexArr)
 
It would be interesting to know why. For me it is easier to read 200*10^-6 as 200 micro-whatever than reading 2*10^-4.
Scientific notation was pounded into my head around Middle School. The older I've gotten, the worse I've gotten with anything number related, so I never took to engineering notation. The same would be said for me had I learned engineering notation first instead I bet.
 
Scientific notation was pounded into my head around Middle School. The older I've gotten, the worse I've gotten with anything number related, so I never took to engineering notation. The same would be said for me had I learned engineering notation first instead I bet.

Makes sense, it's like the phrase: "Old dog can't learn new tricks". I learned it too in middle school, then didn't use it much in high school so I had an easier time relating the engineering notation to mili, micro, nano, pico, femto... But not everyone have the same way of learning things, and most of the times we have our weak areas.

Right know I'm suffering a lot with electromagnetic theory, and had a lot easier time with programing-related and circuit classes than physics. Probably it would have been a wiser choice to pick computer engineering than electronic, now, I didn't know what would be my strengths and weaknesses at the moment I picked the career.
 
You know what a google is? 1 followed by 100 zeroes. I upgraded to ipv6 2 years ago when they forced me to install att uverse internet. I don't think anyone else in the building of 30 apartments has it. They didn't give us uverse tv either. My dsl line was dirty, so although I was taking the extra curricular part of an online android class and it was down for eight days, I like it. Was previously trying out a mac and the updates ruined it because of this problem, because they don't checksum them like windows does. Returned the mac.
 
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