IPv6 what it means for you

You have probably been hearing over the last few months, some internet rumors about the internet running out of addresses. There are lots of rumors out there, but this one happens to be true. Due to increasing internet traffic in the developing world, and the proliferation of hand held devices worldwide that access the internet, the internet really is running out of addresses.

To clarify an IP address is actually called an internet protocol address. It is a number, similar in some ways to a phone number, that identifies the sender and receiver of information travelling over the internet. The industry currently runs on what is called an IPv4 protocol for all the addresses accessing the internet. The problem is, similar to phone numbers, these numbers have to be lengthened or we will run out. If you think back a few years, local phone numbers were shorter, we only had to dial 7 digits instead of 10. As communities grew, we started to run out of 7 digit phone numbers and everyone was expanded to 10 digits. IPv6 internet protocol address work in the same way. They contain more digits and therefore create a lot more possible addresses (somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 trillion addresses); negating the idea of running out any time soon.

The change to IPv6 does not actually require anything from the consumer. It is expected to be a subtle change by internet service providers that probably will not be noticed. They may request that you do some configuring on your computer and router, or replace your router to make everything work smoothly. The change over should be fairly seemless, but there may be some issues for people whose systems have not been properly configured to the new IP system. Internet service providers will provide instruction on configuration.

Most websites will continue, for a while, to offer service in both formats and each computer will determine based on it's IP address which will work best. You won't notice anything different at all. In the rare case that IPv6 is not compatible with your computer, you will be able to disable the new system, but it is unlikely that you will need to.

June 8, 2011 is IPv6 Day

This is the day that many companies worldwide including Yahoo, Facebook and Google will be testing their infrastructure to ensure it is compatible with IPv6 technology. These websites are providing their content in both formats and Yahoo is providing a computer test to determine if you are IPv6 compatible.

The long and short of it is you don't need to worry, you will be able to access the internet.