What Happens When IPv4 Address Space Is Gone

darthcamaro writes 'We all know that IPv4 address space is almost all gone — but how will we know when the exact date is? And what will happen that day? In a new report, ARIN's CIO explains exactly what will happen on that last day of IPv4 address availability: '"We will run out of IPv4 address space and the real difficult part is that there is no flag date. It's a real moving date based on demand and the amount of address space we can reclaim from organizations," Jimmerson told InternetNews.com. "If things continue they way they have, ARIN will for the very first time, sometime between the middle and end of next year, receive a request for IPv4 address space that is justified and meets the policy. However, ARIN won't have the address space. So we'll have to say no for the very first time."'

Comments

The Internet is Full

[Nerdfest]

The Internet is full ... come back later.

Re:The Internet is Full

[Anonymous Coward]

Just put the internet behind a NAT. Simple.

Re:The Internet is Full

[mrsteveman1]

OK, but i want it cleaned first, your IP address has been to every porn site on the internet.

Re:The Internet is Full

[MBCook]

Have you tried draining your ethernet cable?

Re:The Internet is Full

[darkpixel2k]

"We all know that IPv4 address space is almost all gone — but how will we know when the exact date is? and what will happen that day?

Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Re:The Internet is Full

[cgenman]

Somebody clogged the tubes.

See, IPv4 is like a 1/2" tube, and IPv6 is like a 3/4" tube. IPv4 is smaller with a higher pressure, and so works faster, but moves less internet overall. IPv6 is better if you have a higher pressure internet, as it can move a greater volume but only if you support it. Lots of people are trying to squeeze their devices onto the intertubes, so the pressure of all of those electrons is really high. This clogs IPv4, freezes the electrons, and causes the web to burst.

So support IPv6! And don't forget to winterize your internets.

Re:The Internet is Full

[colonelquesadilla]

Everyone knows the more modern type of tube uses photons, not electrons, since photons don't follow the pauli exclusion principle you can fit a bunch more of them in the tube at once, that's why fiber is faster than coax.

Re:The Internet is Full

[gbjbaanb]

Do you have an answer on how being cut off from large swaths of the internet is a good thing

depends, is Facebook on this part of the Internet you're referring to?

Re:The Internet is Full

[LynnwoodRooster]

Why don't we just print out what is there now, give everyone a copy, and then reuse the existing space?

Re:The Internet is Full

[MichaelSmith]

Everyone knows the more modern type of tube uses photons, not electrons, since photons don't follow the pauli exclusion principle you can fit a bunch more of them in the tube at once, that's why fiber is faster than coax.

Yes but they do tend to heat up the tube because energy dispersion scales with the density of photons.

Re:The Internet is Full

[drinkypoo]

Wow, way to go big guy! Instead of 2011 for IANA exhaustion, it'll now be 2013! Problem solved.

He's planning for the world to end in 2012.

dev/null

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Send users to dev/null.

Re:dev/null

[biryokumaru]

If you send them to /dev/random, it should eventually give them everything on the internet. Eventually.

Easy

[networkzombie]

Just do what I do at work. Ping the address, if there is no reply, assign it to something else.

Perhaps the end of /. stories on end of IPv4

[haus]

But somehow I doubt it.

Time to start hoarding...

[JorDan Clock]

I guess it's time to start filling bathtubs with IPv4 addresses!

everybody somebody nobody anybody

[h00manist]

An important job had to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done

Re:Hmmm

[jsepeta]

I agree.

Also I suggest opening up .XXX and make all the porn guys move their sites to the .XXX namespace. Plus make them migrate to IPV6 so the rest of us can just stick with IPV4

Re:Why run IPV6?

[u17]

Berkeley Software Distribution Masochism?

Re:Comcast is starting IPv6

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'm going to activate IPv6 on my dd-wrt router and all my PCs sometime this weekend."

Thanks for letting us know. So, if we don't hear from you tomorrow we'll know why, and we'll send out a search party.

Re:Hmmm

[GillyGuthrie]

Considering this is private reserved address space, your exorbitant price tag yields absolutely no valuable product.

Time to move west

[ElusiveJoe]

I heard they've got some IPv4 left in California.

Re:Hmmm

[DocHoncho]

No kidding. You must be fun at parties.

Re:hype..

[McGiraf]

well y2k arrived just a the predicted time ...

Investment about to pay off!

[pizza_milkshake]

I paid thousands for 127.0.0.1 years ago in anticipation of this. Cha-ching!