The Internet is set to run out of IP addresses by 2011. A mass-switch to IPv6 would solve this problem, but so far few businesses and ISPs have taken the initiative to do so.

So what will happen as the number of available addresses continues to shrink? Expect web hosts and server providers to charge more for extra IPs. A number of universities and non-profits also have large blocks of unused IPs. ARIN will very likely take these back. Regardless of this, the situation still looks very grim.

We’re going to see a similar circumstance [to domain name cyber squatting] to some extent. Certainly there will be a lot of pressure for companies to hold onto their IPv4 addresses even if they don’t need them because they can monetize them. That’s what we’re looking at as a potential scenario.

ARIN is the organisation that manages the world’s IPs. As of right now, 90% of the world’s IPs are in use, but only 3% of websites have transitioned to the new IPv6 technology.

I think ARIN is right about IP cybersquatting, but whose fault is it? Years ago the organisation gave out large blocks of IP addresses to universities and companies without considering future need. Considering the commercial goals of most IP block owners, did ARIN honestly ever expect them to hand the addreses back?

Source | Computer World
Photo | Flickr

Answer: 127.0.0.1 is the standard ip address assigned to the lookback network interface in IPv4. Because it is a standard, all server should conform to it, and you should be able to access any open ports on your own server through that address. It is also known by the hostname “localhost”, and it is actually more common for documentation to use localhost just in case a server happens to use a different ip address.

If you are running Apache on a local machine, you can use 127.0.0.1 or localhost to access it through a web browser or other method. It is also used by MySQL, CUPS, and many other services, all using their own various ports. Even if no other network devices are setup on a Linux server, the “lo” loopback device should still be present. To find out information about it, you can type “ifconfig” from the command line. It should produce output that looks something like this:

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:49476 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:49476 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:9790315 (9.7 MB) TX bytes:9790315 (9.7 MB)

Photo Source: Flickr

Unsurprisingly, the United States currently holds 37.46% of the world’s IPv4 addresses. Far behind in the number-two position is the United Kingdom, which only owns 9.94% of addresses. Next is China with 8.33%, Japan with 7.13%, and Germany with 3.90%. Together, the top ten countries in the report control 79.1% of allocated IP addresses.

According to the report, the number of new IP addresses allocated to networks is slowly decreasing in the United States as it increases in China. Considering the heavy growth China has seen over the last decade, this trend isn’t surprising.

John Curran, president and CEO of ARIN, has said requests for IPs will be granted as usual, but is pushing ISPs to adopt the new technology. ARIN has also had success getting unused IPs back. Many of these addresses were given in enormous blocks to universities and companies a long time ago and never fully utilized.

Presently, Curran is at CES attempting to inform manufacturers about the need to move to IPv6. But with two years of addresses left and a slew of new products to develop, tech companies seem largely uninterested in making the switch. Oh well, maybe next year?

Photo | Flickr

Unfortunately, this practice is hard to track down given the shear size of the Internet. Thousands of requests are made for IPs daily, but there is no system in place to verify them. Who should get the last few remaining IPs? Is a request a true need or merely a convenience?
In the coming year, expect to see more attention given to questions like these.

Personally, I think more effort should be put into verifying IP requests. Anything that cuts down on cyber crime and frees up precious IPv4 addresses is a good thing.

Source | Ars Technica
Photo | clix

Japan is not the first to allow IP trading. The practice has been legal in Europe for a year and was approved in the United States in June.

The current IPv4 address system is slated to run out in two years or less. If dormant addresses are sold, however, an extra year of time will be gained to transition to IPv6.

Source | TMCnet

Adding further gloom and doom to the situation is the fact that only 8% of ISPs have started using IPv6. Most IPs are used for Internet access, so this is not good at all.

Internet providers and other companies are hesitant to upgrade to IPv6 because the transition is costly and would cut into profits. Most will likely wait until hardware is too old to use until upgrading to IPv6 compatible equipment.

In my opinion, the government needs to do more to step up IPv6 adoption. Why not offer tax incentives for ditching IPv4 or provide grants for purchasing new network hardware? At the rate things are moving now, IPs will run out long before the world is ready to use IPv6.

Photo | Rotorhead

So far this year, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has received some 300 requests for IPv6 address blocks– greater than the number of requests made in 2007 and 2008 combined.

John Curran, President of ARIN, said:

We’re seeing an uptick in IPv6 address space requests; it’s a very significant growth rate.We’ve seen a slight slowdown in IPv4 address space requests…It’s probably dropped off 10% or 20% year over year.

ISPs are asking for IPv6 addresses so they can make their networks IPv6-enabled so they are ready [for the future].
We give each ISP enough IPv6 addresses to support 4 billion networks, and each network can contain trillions and trillions of hosts.

The question is, will ISPs adopt IPv6 fast enough before IPv4 runs out? Providers will have to move much more rapidly if they want to avoid an IP shortage.

Source | Network World

Photo | Flickr

The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) currently governs IP distribution in the region. If India can obtain permission from the organization to hand out addresses, it would mean that users could obtain IPs more quickly and for a lower price.

An ISP executive stated:

At present, if one wants an IP address that entity has to pay the retail price directly to APNIC. If an Indian NIR is set up, it will buy IP addresses from APNIC on wholesale rates and then resell it to Indian corporates at much lower rates

Because a national IP allocation system would reduce APNIC’s revenue, it is unlikely that the agency will be eager to accept the change.

Source | Hindu Business Line
Photo | Flickr