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Vint Cerf Keeps Blaming Himself For IPv4 Limit

Posted by kdawson on from the mea-maxima-culpa dept.

netbuzz writes "Everyone knows that IPv4 addresses are nearly gone and the ongoing move to IPv6 is inevitable if not exactly welcomed by all. If you've ever wondered why the IT world finds itself in this situation, Vint Cerf, known far and wide as one of the fathers of the Internet, wants you to know that it's OK to blame him. He certainly does so himself. In fact, he does so time and time and time again."

6 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. Things people do... by Anonymatt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this a backwards opportunity taken for asserting that he is one of the Fathers of the Internet?

    1. Re:Things people do... by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

      We all know it wasn't him. Seriously - is there anyone here who doesn't know who algoreithms are named after?

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      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Glad thats sorted out! by powerlord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cool. Now that we've assigned blame, hopefully we can move forward with FIXING the problem.

    Since there is already a fix available (IPv6), if/when this DOES become a problem, THAT problem should be assigned squarely on the shoulders of the people who failed to implement the FIX in a timely enough manner.

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    1. Re:Glad thats sorted out! by hardburn · · Score: 5, Informative

      Except IPv6 is hierarchical, for that very reason. Routing tables can be much, much smaller than they are on IPv4.

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      Not a typewriter
  3. an alan cox interview by ciaran_o_riordan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's an interview where he says it:

    http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t576610-alan-cox-on-software-patents.html

    """Alan Cox: The same has happened with IP version 6. You notice that everyone
    is saying IP version 6 is this, is that, and there's all this research
    software up there. No one at Cisco is releasing big IPv6 routers.
    Not because there's no market demand, but because they want 20
    years to have elapsed from the publication of the standard before
    the product comes out -- because they know that there will be
    hundreds of people who've had guesses at where the standard
    would go and filed patents around it. And it's easier to let things
    lapse for 20 years than fight the system."""

    (More info would be good - any other prominent techs saying this?)

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  4. Re:Bogus shortage by jandrese · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The scary thing is that for every Class A returned to the pool, you only buy like a month of life for IPv4. It's just growing too fast now and we're going to start seeing a lot of stories about people not getting their IP addresses in a year or two. Luckily it won't affect existing customers too badly, but it will be a real limit on growth.

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