IP addresses, or computer’s Internet Protocol addresses are numbers that identify a computer when it goes online. When Internet addresses were first used, the set up was for 4.3 billion address numbers; who could have guessed that more numbers would be needed later?
The system used now is called, IPv4, or Internet Protocol version 4, and it encompasses all the numbers in the Internet to date. They say the world is running out of IP addresses to give out; the Internet will be full. The last two blocks of Internet addresses were purchased January 3rd, 2011.
What people don’t know is that they have another Internet worked out, and it has room for – get this number – 340 undecillion addresses. An undecillion has 12 zeros, and there are 340 of them. Just one undecillion is a capacity that’s thought will never be reached, as was the version 4 Internet when it was created.
We Won’t Run Out of Bandwidth Completely
The new version of the Internet, or IPv6, seems that it’ll last centuries, but it was never thought that version 4 would be filled in such a short time. The new version is likely to be used, only it’s going to be very difficult to get people to publish on it and get it started.
The two versions cannot communicate; they speak different languages, so they cannot integrate or even be used simultaneously. It’s going to be tough to sell space on version 6 when everyone else is on version 4. People will have to surf on two Internets to see all they want to see and people will have to pay for two websites in order to be seen by all, and in this day of instant gratification, that’s a failure waiting to happen.
It’s a prediction that people will stick to version 4 for some time after version 6 is on the market, sticking with what they know. Only the new businesses and innovative thinkers will be using version 6 at first, which will become the modern/trendy web place to be, and space in either version is going up.
