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Why You Shouldn't Worry About IPv6 Just Yet

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the more-worried-about-a-sandwich dept.

nk497 writes "While it's definitely time to start thinking about IPv6, it's not time for most to move up to it, argues Steve Cassidy, saying most can turn it off in Windows 7 without causing any trouble. Many network experts argue we're nearing network armageddon, but they've been saying that for years.'This all started when Tony Blair was elected. The first time. Yep, that's how long IPv6 has been around, and it's quite a few weeks ago now.' He says smart engineering has avoided many of the problems. 'Is there an IPv6 "killer app" yet for smaller networks? No. Is there any reason based on security or ease of management — unless you're running a 100,000-seat network or a national-level ISP — for you to move up to it? No. Should you start to do a bit of reading about it? That's about the stage we're truly at, and the answer to that one is: yes,' he says."

1 of 425 comments (clear)

  1. Re:poorly informed by dissy · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I did just as you suggested and went to check the list on iana.org... Holy crap!

    I stand very corrected. The info I was using hasn't been updated since May of 2009!

    It seems their old text file list is now defunct. If you go to the old base URL in a web browser, it redirects you to a new XML formatted version, which you can then change the extension to .txt to get the current new text file (With the proper updated date at the top)

    So thank you for pointing that out. The number of unreserved blocks was right (well off by one, oops) but none of the past year of updates are on the old file

    http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space/ipv4-address-space.txt

    Another detail i notice, the new txt file doesn't list status dates for the unallocated blocks any longer.
    Possibly a sign that reallocation is coming sooner than later?
    One of the original plans was to allocate them in order of how early they were reserved, making the higher number blocks go first. Now it seems some of the lower blocks are allocated out as well.

    Looks like the 42./8 has moved up to #6 on the list, assuming they go in ascending order.
    I generally check 3-4 times a year for that very reason, as I know it's getting closer to crunch time and will have to deal with that soon on my end.