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Article: IP: next generation: soon, every gadget on the planet will be on the internet, and they'll each need a unique IP address. That's where it gets tricky ...(ip addresses)
- Article from:
- Australian PC World
- Article date:
- June 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 IDG Communications Pty. Ltd - Australia. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I've often wondered if the first sign of madness is the ability to reel off a variety of "important" IP addresses by heart. The trouble is, things are set to get worse.
The reason for the imminent change is that we're running out of IP addresses. The Internet gets its name from the network layer protocol, called the Internet Protocol or IP. IP Version 4 (or IPv4) has been in use for about 20 years now and has worked reasonably well. It uses a 32-bit addressing scheme and so can provide 232 or 4.2 billion unique IP addresses.
This seems like an enormous number, but it becomes clear that there is a problem when you consider that there are 6.5 billion souls ...