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So, it seems to me that about every year at this time, we have a frenzy concerning how we are running out of Internet addresses.  As background, every device that connects to the Internet must have a unique identification code, called an IP address.  The current addressing scheme is nearly 15 years old and called, IP version 4, or IPv4 for short.  The funny thing is that I have been reading this same story for each of those past 15 years and even did a term paper on it when I got my masters!

On Mondays I offer comments on some   of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week.  Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.

Today’s comments were generated after I read a CNN story.  It is about the same message that they issue once per year.  I recommend it to you.  Give it a read below.

CNN.com – Are you ready for the big internet crunch?

“(CNN) — The internet as we know it is reaching its limits.

Within 18 months it is estimated that the number of new devices able to connect to the world wide web will plummet as we run out of "IP addresses" — the unique codes that provide access to the internet for everything from PCs to smart phones.

"The internet as we know it will no longer be able to grow," Daniel Karrenberg, chief scientist at RIPE NCC, the organization that issues IP addresses in Europe, told CNN.”

The basic problem is that when the Internet went mainstream in the mid-nineties, no one envisioned that every person on the planet would have multiple computers, let alone a smart phone, toaster, and Wii that needed an address.  The problem got very acute around the millennial, but was warded off by a new addressing scheme for downstream computers, called NAT, that allowed every computer on a local network to share a single point-of-presence connection to the Internet.  This is why, you are said to be sharing an internet connection on your local street, at the coffee shop, and at work.

The solution is to upgrade the address scheme to a newer version, called IP version 6 or IPv6.  You can read all about it at Wikipedia.  Don’t worry about version 5… it is caput.  IPv6 brings a host of new features in addition to its dramatically increased address space including quality of service, security, and expandability.  The good news is that every piece of networking hardware built in the past five years came out-of-the-box compatible.  The bad news is that people have continued to write online software code that only works on IPv4 even though they new it’s life expectancy was short. And thus lies the problem, the actual impact of shifting will be a crap shoot until we pull the trigger.  That, and no one wants to be the first penguin off the iceberg, and risk mission kill.

The best news is that this story has not changed on lick in the past eight years!  We will all gnash our teeth, complain a bit, and decide to put off the inevitable for another year.  Stay tuned in June 2011 for another CNN news story on this ery same issue….

What do you think about this topic?  Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 31, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: VEED.in – Tech News