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Internet Running Out of IP Addresses

Service providers need to get onboard with IPv6

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 31, 2007 11:26 AM CDT

(Newser) – By 2010, new computers won’t be able to get online, warns Internet co-inventor Vint Cerf, unless ISPs adopt IPv6, a new system of assigning IP addresses. IP addresses are unique number strings devices need to get online, but most of the 4 billion numbers possible under the current system are taken. Routing devices are ready for IPv6, but providers are balking at the expensive switch.

“The reason they haven't - which is quite understandable - is that customers haven't asked for it yet,” said Cerf, who helped develop the technical underpinnings of the Net. “My job…is to persuade them to ask for it.” IPv6 provides 340 trillion trillion trillion possible addresses, the BBC explains, which should satisfy demand for decades.

Vint Cerf works on his computer in his McLean, Va. home in this Sept. 6, 2005 file photo. After fending off an international rebellion and planting the seeds for streamlining operations, Cerf is stepping... (Associated Press)

Cerf warns that unique IP addresses are finite, and set to run out around 2010. (Shutterstock.com)

With a finite amount of IP addresses, Cerf warns that some devices may not be able to get online if certain changes fail to be implemented. (Shutterstock.com)

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Internet • IP address • ICANN • Vint Cerf • IPv6

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The Internet Is Almost Full

IP address shortage could be Y2K 2.0

Dot Gov Must Act on Looming Dot Everything Shortage

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Feds Lag on Internet Protocol Upgrade

Agencies must support IPv6, but most aren't switching

Foreign Domain Names Coming to Net

After years of complaints, ICANN fast tracks non-Latin web addresses

Net Co-Inventor Leaving Domain Name Agency

Cerf navigated oversight board through WWW's early days

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