IANA Runs Out of IP Addresses
February 17th, 2011
Regular Chad’s News readers already know that the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has been close to running out of IP address blocks. Well, it’s finally happened. As of February 3rd, the last free Class A blocks were allocated to the Regional Internet Registries. It will take at least a few months for the RIRs to run dry, but it will happen.
This doesn’t mean that the internet will suddenly come crashing down or that people will not be able to connect. There are workarounds for the lack of IP addresses, and the long-term solution, switching to IPv6, has been around for years. Network engineers have long known this day was coming, but have been putting it off because it takes time and money to upgrade. Now that we’re close to running out of IP addresses, however, the need is more pressing and we may see more action.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
[link]Dan Holt Says:
February 17th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
And the most rediculous thing is that the IPv6 addressing schema allows for absorbing the current IPv4 addresses into the new schema, so really its the gateways and DNS which need to go IPv6 first, assuming I understand v6.
It’s just typical to ignore a known issue until forced to cope…and then scramble to deal.
[link]Chad Cloman Says:
February 17th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
I believe you’re correct. I’ve even heard that some people may be using IPv6 without knowing it, for just that reason.