Internet is running out of space?

That was the last thing was on my mind tbh.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-internet-is-running-out-of-space-heres-why-that-matters-2011-3

What you guys think about this? Any insight on this?

Pretty much looks like a situation where both businesses and end users will both be given the shaft with the ignoring of IPv6, maybe we'll see American ISPs finally get off their asses on the maintenance side of things with this. I can imagine most of the large businesses being able to make the switch, but things such as smaller businesses and hospitals won't fare as well if the ISPs that keep them online ignore this issue.

If only we could run an IPv4 and IPv6 parallel to each other and then run a slow transition to complete IPv6, then we could delay the problem a little while longer.

well we have IPv4 and IPv6 so why not a IPv8?

Argh! So much misinformation.
Here's the deal: Machines on the Internet need a unique address, called the IP address. There are two standards used today:

IPv4: A 32-bit number. Usually divided into 4 octets, this is why an address is usually given as 4 number between 0-255 divided by dots. Ie. 192.168.0.1 (this is a C-class address in the range reserved for internal netwroks).

IPv6: A 128-bit number. Too damn big to ever input numbers by hand. Thanks to DNS (which translated IP addresses into actual "names" that humans can use) this won't be a problem.

Why do we need IPv6? In theory IPv4 should've been enough. After all it's 2^32 or about 4.3 *billion* addresses.

Here's why:
-Mobile devices: when everything from your mobile-phone to your alarm clock will be on the net each person will use dozens of addresses.
-Always-on connections: since dial up is gone (and good riddance!) users will keep using their addresses so they can't be reassigned to another user.
-Inefficient address use: Class A and Class B addresses when sold/given away carried millions of addresses in the address space to big companies & government and education entities (ie. universities). They're unlikely to ever use these.

What can be done? Move to IPv6. Why isn't everyone doing this?
-A lot of big players (ie. Google) have already switched.
-So did the USA and other countries with enough federal/state budget.
-It's the ISPs and smaller countries that are dragging their feet as there's a big debate on *who* should cover the cost of moving.
-Some of the unused address space given to Class A and Class B IP holders will likely be resold now. (This is also called address space reclamation).

What can you do on your own to be IPv6 compliant?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_transition_mechanisms

You might also be interested in this:




PS.:


This can be done and is called "dual-stack". Check the Wikipedia link above.

Well known problem. Not really news.

eh, well probaly see a pinch for a while, a bunch of errors, well get the shit end of the deal untill companys profits take a dive, when the lose money, then they will fix it.

This is not restricted to the ISPs. The end users also have a lot of old devices that don't support IPv6, so they too will have to upgrade.

This is exactly what has been happening for years. The internet will never run out of "space".

The internet is a huge network of connected computers so "running out of space" isn't like filling your hard drive with porn then having to delete some of it. I agree with the others about IPv4 and IPv6.

What would happen if every server and computer online all ran out of hard drive space and available RAM at the same time? Does the internet crash then?

really? how can it run out of space... they havent been updating their servers i guess?

Try reading the article.

Gah! The Internet is not running out of *storage* or *memory* space.
It's running out of IPv4 address space.

+1

IPv6 move have been done slowly. OS from Windows 2000 to the present implement IPv6, and all nowadays ones have it enabled by default. If you have IPv6 capable router and ISP, it works without you notice it :P.