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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, @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.