Father of the internet: 'web is running out of addresses'

Times Online ^ | Sept 24, 2008 | Mike Harvey

[rjsimmon]

The world is about to run out of the internet addresses that allow computers to identify each other and communicate, the man who invented the system has told The Times.

Vint Cerf, the “father of the internet” and one of the world’s leading computer scientists, said that businesses and consumers needed to act now to switch to the next generation of net addresses. Unless preparations were made now, he said, some computers might not be able to go online and the connectivity of the internet might be damaged.

[rjsimmon]

Time to implement IPv6.

[Vaquero]

[George from New England]

If we take all IP addresses away from Nigeria and take addresses away from all spam sources, we’ll be fine til 2310.

[Mr. K]

if they would switch to alpha-numeric they could keep the current XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX format

i am sure 999billion addresses seemed like a lot when it was invented

[rabscuttle385]

Time to implement IPv6.

You know, people are just going to continue being lazy and using NAT.

[bamahead]

[SpinnerWebb]

Sure glad I still have that school bus buried with supplies from 1998-99 timeframe... now... where are those keys?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

[6SJ7]

Oh good. Another ‘crisis’ over which the ninnies in the MSM can go nuts.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> If we take all IP addresses away from Nigeria and take addresses away from all spam sources, we’ll be fine til 2310.

Not a silly idea at all, for a whole bunch of reasons. I wonder why they don’t?

[bamahead]

What’s the rush? The more scarce IPv4 addresses get, the more providers can charge for them. What’s their incentive? Why do you think they’ve been sitting on their hands with IPv6 for a decade now?

[Mark319]

...and then airplanes start falling out of the sky, right ???

[C210N]

'web is running out of addresses'

Small nit: Its the current internet version that is running out of internet addresses. The "web" is just fine with its URL "addresses".

[TheCipher]

He said he had been speaking to ISPs, including AT&T and Verizon in the United States and BT, the biggest ISP in the UK. He said the bulk of companies had no idea about IPv6 and the ISPs were not informing them.

They didn't know about IPv6 ? Who are these companies employing as network engineers ? Actually, what is more likely is that the upper echelons were probably informed by the engineers, but the bean counters considered it too costly and ignored them.

[Myrddin]

Time to implement IPv6.

Most Windows and Linux systems have a good IPv6 stack running right now. The missing ingredients are in the core routers and off the shelf networking gear that is IPv4 only. My home network is mostly functional with IPv6, but that is principally just for entertainment. DoD mandated IPv6 in new procurements, but failed to enforce it. It's an unrealistic demand when vendors are delivering the necessary infrastructure.

[New Perspective]

Problem Solved

[Myrddin]

It's an unrealistic demand when vendors are NOT delivering the necessary infrastructure.

[bigbob]

Agreed, sheesh. IPv6, move along...

[taxcontrol]

If you want to move to IPv6 .... start charging more money per /24 address. This will create a huge jump in price for those that hold full class A addresses (IBM owns the 9 network) who will then either move to IPv6 or implement NAT and reduce their foot print.

[maggief]

Global warming!