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from the don't-give-huge-blocks-to-businesses dept.
Things are looking up for our next-generation internet.
[...] But the shortage of IPv4 elbow room became a steadily worsening issue -- have you noticed all those phones that can connect to the network now, for example? So tech companies banded together to try to advance IPv6. The result: World IPv6 Day on June 8, 2011, when tech giants like Google, Facebook and Yahoo tested IPv6 sites to find any problems. For a sequel, they restarted those IPv6 connections and left them on starting on World IPv6 Launch Day, June 6, 2012.
Back then, there was still a risk that IPv6 wouldn't attract a critical mass of usage even with the tech biggies on board. The result would've been an internet complicated by multilayer trickery called network address translation, or NAT, that let multiple devices share the same IP address. But statistics released Wednesday by one IPv6 organizer, the Internet Society, show that IPv6 is growing steadily in usage, with about a quarter of us now using it worldwide. It looks like we're finally moving into a future that's been within our grasp since the Clinton administration.
"While there is obviously more to be done -- like roll out IPv6 to the other 75 percent of the Internet -- it's becoming clear that IPv6 is here to stay and is well-positioned to support the Internet's growth for the next several decades," said Lorenzo Colitti, a Google software engineer who's worked on IPv6 for years.
[...] How much room does IPv6 have? Enough to give network addresses to 340 undecillion devices -- that's two to the 128th power, or 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 if you're keeping score.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday June 07 2018, @04:22PM (4 children)
These seem to be facets of "shiny new stuff" syndrome. Programmers, finally realizing that they need to not reinvent the wheel, depend on libraries. That's generally "good". But many libraries have been "improved" with instructions/features (perhaps coincidentally) found only in 64-bit processors, meaning their 32-bit legacy versions get dropped instead of maintained in parallel.
Cascading results include programs that would otherwise work fine on any arbitrary level of bittiness losing 32-bit support because their library dependencies have lost 32-bit support. And operating system vendors watching their upstream pools of 32-bit software shrink before their very eyes as new versions require the shiny new 64-bit only libraries (despite not requiring the shiny new features therein).
In my humble opinion, this is a "bad thing" with respect to GNU/Linux distributions and operating systems in general, as 32-bit machines in general are as capable and hardy as they ever were, and it's getting to the point where you have to run old, unpatched, unmaintained software on them, or add concrete and chain and repurpose them as boat anchors.
With respect to IPv6, the corresponding process might be a good thing, and might not. One certainly hopes that it takes off and works and we go to a practically all-IPv6 internetworking universe.
But frankly I am still not sure that IPv6 is going to catch on, the hopeful and forward-looking language of TFA notwithstanding.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:04PM (3 children)
Here's why I think it will.
IPv4 addresses are a limited resource. (Well, so is IPv6, but in slightly more abundance, see other posts here about how the address space is somewhat larger)
IPv4 addresses were all allocated in 2014 -- which is why the Mayan's ended their calendar. End of the world, etc.
Now it is just an economic market of who can buy, sell and trade IPv4 addresses as they are needed. Static IPv4s will be harder and more expensive to buy.
IPv6 addresses will be plentiful and cheap. Like nuclear power, so cheap we won't even have to meter it, or so they said.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday June 07 2018, @05:41PM (2 children)
I so want you to be exactly right. But the solution is a problem. That solution being the temporary one, NAT, and the problem being that many shrug and say "Ah, who cares, a ten|one-(seventy|ninety)-two dot whatever NAT address is just as good as a real one, with virtual hosts and all."
Even my ISP hands out not real addresses, but 10.0.x.x NAT ones, to cable modem customers (unless you cough up $10 a month to get a real IPv4 address, which is very rare, judging by the surprise of the tech support and customer service people when I said I needed a real IP address). Almost no one knows or cares. (I was furious, and let them know it. This was my introduction to CGNAT.)
NAT addresses are not good enough, by any measure, except the 80/20 rule: 80% of the people have a networking IQ of about 20, and therefore don't know or care about IP addressing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @06:00PM
You're way off.
80/20? Ha!
More like 99.99/0.01.
And, that's not just for networking; that's for everything.
Virtually nobody has control over anything, and virtually nobody knows how anything works, anyway. Each person has fallen into a certain position within the Great Machine, and just does one little repetitious action before dying one day.
That's why you can't ever get through to someone to help you solve your problems, such as getting a "real" IP. Your only interface to the rest of the world is a nebulous cloud of know-nothings in the 99.99%, who don't even know where the sentient 0.01% are.
When you realize this, the whole world starts to make a lot more sense.
Give up now, while you can. Have a beer, and watch a show on Netflix.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @09:18PM
You're way off.
80/20? Ha!
More like 99.99/0.01.
And, that's not just for networking; that's for everything.
Virtually nobody has control over anything, and virtually nobody knows how anything works, anyway. Each person has fallen into a certain position within the Great Machine, and just does one little repetitious action before dying one day.
That's why you can't ever get through to someone to help you solve your problems, such as getting a "real" IP. Your only interface to the rest of the world is a nebulous cloud of know-nothings in the 99.99%, who don't even know where the sentient 0.01% are.
When you realize this, the whole world starts to make a lot more sense.
Give up now, while you can. Have a beer, and watch a show on Netflix.