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Are you wondering what this blog (and the fuzz) is all about?

The Internet is running out of telephone numbers (the simplest possible analogy). Around 2010/11 there will be no free numbers left. Sure, there are quite a lot of unused numbers we can re-use but with the Internet growing as it is we will exhaust those recycled numbers as well pretty quickly. (Each telephone number (”IP Address”) identifies a computer on the Internet, it allows you to Skype your grandmother in Europe, or read a web page found on a server in Israel).

A simple solution exists: add more numbers.

The current system (called IPv4) has been around since the 1980’s and is theoretically able to handle some 4,2 billion Internet addresses (2^32) which is amazingly not quite enough. The new system (called IPv6) offers 2^128 addresses; which is an unpronounceable large number. (If you would like to REALLY connect the planet, IPv6 provides many thousands of possible addresses for every square meter of the planet).

The best thing of all, when you browse the web you won’t notice a thing different. You don’t even need a new telephone book. Just type “www.google.com” and everyone’s favorite search engine pops up.

Well that was easy, so why is everyone panicking?

That is because Google will likely be one of the few websites that will pop-up; just about 1.2% of the worlds Internet sites is currently prepared for the change-over.

IPv6 is the new protocol and it has been around since 1996. The problem is that there is no simple way to go from the old system (IPv4) to the new one (IPv6).

As we spend the last two decades building the Internet using the old and familiar IPv4 protocol few paid attention to the fact that the supply of addresses was running out fast. As such all major players (Internet Service Providers (ISP), Web Hosting Providers, Domain Name Registrars) have made woefully little progress. Sure, there have been conferences, work shops and in the past decade most pressing technical problems have been worked out. But actual implementation has been lacking and in many cases never came beyond the status of a demo project.

As no internet users needed IPv6, ISPs didn’t invest in providing it. With no IPv6 visitors, websites were not designed to support IPv6. With no need for IPv6 websites, domain name providers didn’t invest in providing the technical solutions necessary to support IPv6 domain names.

Most personal computers however have little problem with IPv6. Your Windows XP/Linux/MacOs machine has had all the right software for years.

Your ADSL modem, home wireless router and other equipment however are unlikely to support it. The same for companies, big and small worldwide. Few have made the investments in time and money to buy the (often more expensive) hardware. So their internal networks, network printers and other devices are unlikely to fully support IPv6.

If you have ever seen a dotted Internet address (like: 10.0.0.100) you should realize that there is an awful lot of software out there that assumes that this is the only valid form for an Internet address. An IPv6 address is much longer and is in a different format.

This sounds like the year 2000 bug all over again….

But the good thing is no airplanes will fall from the sky, trains will continue to run and you can still book that flight to the Bahamas through your favorite discount travel agency. When the world runs out of addresses, things will continue to run.

Growth however will become more expensive. Many places on the planet need more addresses as millions/billions of new people come online. Thus creating a shortage, driving up the cost of connecting people to the internet.

What will happen next ?

Nobody knows. Many things need to happen simultaneously for IPv6 to become a reality. On the positive side, most of the groundwork has been laid. What lacks is the practical implementation by everyone involved.

A very big part of the task ahead is in education. Making the right people aware of the problem, solutions and correct approaches.

Your telephone company only had to worry about its own area when it expanded its telephone numbers — with this change over the whole world is involved.