What seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of something has apparently run out, and I am not talking about fresh water or fossil fuel (it would be interesting to see how the world copes when either one of the two are no more), but rather something not that essential to life – IPv4 addresses. Apparently, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) claims that there are no more freely available IPv4 addresses for the masses, as predicted earlier this year.
What does this mean for regular Joes and Janes like you and I? Not much, actually, although the pressure is most likely to be on Internet service providers, software companies, and large organizations as they work to migrate to IPv6, which is set to take over from IPv4.
According to ARIN president John Curran, the organization has not exhausted their supply of IPv4 addresses completely, since there are some that have been put aside for more specific purposes, including the exchange sites where connections between different Internet service providers’ networks come together. IPv4 was limited to approximately 4 billion addresses thereabouts, while IPv6 should keep humanity well for the future where it claims to be able to provide a whopping 340 undecillion addresses – that is a one, with three dozen zeroes right behind it. No reason to panic now, Chicken Little!