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!