Our Internet future to hit June 6, 2012 as we finally turn on IPv6 for real
The Internet you and I are use to is based on URL addresses (website addresses) that have been utilizing what is commonly referred to as IPv4 (Internet Protocol v 4) but there is a big problem with that system – we have run out of IPv4 addresses to hand out for new sites or to the “Internet of Things”.
Now before you go running and screaming to the hills rest assured that there is a solution. Well actually there has been a solution for quite a long time, even in Internet years, the only problem is that ISP and companies that manufacture Internet related hardware have been dragging their feet, like that is any real surprise.
The time has come though where we have no choice – the switch to move to using the new IPv6 addressing system has to be flipped; and it would appear that Google plans on leading the charge.
On their official blog Google announced today that along with the Internet Society and several major Internet companies there will be a coordinated launch of the the next generation of the Internet Protocol on June 6, 2012. Going under the imaginative name of World IPv6 Launch we will finally start saying good-bye to the old and tired IPv4 system and hello to the practically infinite world of IPv6 internet addresses.
From Google’s announcement:
IPv6 is the replacement for the current version of the Internet Protocol, IPv4, which is quickly running out of addresses. The original IPv6 specification was published more than 15 years ago, but for the entire career of most Internet engineers its deployment has always been in the future. Now it’s finally here. The widespread deployment of IPv6 paves the way for connecting together the billions of devices that permeate our livesーboth fixed and mobile, from the largest cloud computing services to the smallest sensors.
Just a year ago, we announced our participation in World IPv6 Day. Since then, the IPv4 address global free pool was officially depleted, each of the five regions around the world receiving one last address block. Soon after, the Asia-Pacific region exhausted its free IPv4 address pool. Hundreds of websites around the world turned on IPv6 for a 24-hour test flight last June. This time, IPv6 will stay on.
Welcome to the future folks and you can stop hyperventilating over the possibility of the Internet falling apart, well from the IPv4 crisis at least .. there’s still the whole government and big business problem to deal with but that’s another post eh.
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About the Author
Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
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