IPv6 Act Now

It’s been called the next Y2K, and it’s fast approaching – the end of Internet addresses under the current Internet Protocol.

Australian experts warned Monday that the number of Internet addresses available under the current protocol, IPv4, will run out in about 340 days, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported.

Under IPv4, there are only about 232 million IP addresses remaining. An IP address is the unique numerical code assigned to a computer or device by an Internet service provider (ISP).

More from Toronto Sun…

China Telecom has launched pilot projects for Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) in four provinces, looking to better understand the Internet addressing protocol as it applies to varied industries, such as crop monitoring in greenhouses and property management networks.

More from Information Week…

The Internet will run out of Internet addresses in about 1 year’s time, we were told today by John Curran, President and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). The same thing was also stated recently by Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist.

More from ReadWriteWeb…

India will start using IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) from March 2012, according to a new roadmap released by the Indian government.

All telecom and ISPs will have to be IPv6-compliant by the end of next year and offer IPv6 services thereafter, the government said in a statement issued on Wednesday by the country’s Press Information Bureau.

Federal and state government ministries and departments and public sector companies will switch over to IPv6 services by March 2012, the government said.

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As the unallocated IPv4 address pool runs out, are Internet Service Providers (ISPs) actually deploying IPv6?

This graph, the first in a series from RIPE Labs, looks at the IPv6 “ripeness” of all ISPs registered as RIPE NCC members. We created a rating system that gives ISPs up to four “stars” for IPv6 services that they provide, based on the following criteria:http://www.ipv6actnow.org/wp-admin/post-new.php?preview=true

• The ISP has an IPv6 allocation
• The address prefix is actually routed on the Internet
• A route6 object is registered in the RIPE Database
• Reverse DNS has been set up

More from CircleID…

The Internet promises unlimited connectivity, but such connectivity requires that computers and devices find one another through a common address plan. The current plan, in place since the late 1970s, is running out of open addresses, and a new scheme called IPv6 is being put in place to power the Internet’s next stage of growth.

For small businesses that plan ahead, this shift can enhance computing security and application reliability and performance. But waiting until the last minute could leave you scrambling for costly equipment updates, missing an opportunity to turn a necessary change into a business boost.

More from IT Now…

Tuesday June 29th at the Cisco Live Conference Las Vegas, John Chambers announced their newest product, the Cius tablet aimed at the enterprise market and positioned as a mobility product. That very same day a two hour IPv6 deployment panel, moderated by Cisco’s Alain Fiocco, featured Google, Microsoft, Comcast and Tata Communications in front of a room filled to near capacity.

More from Circle ID…

The Internet promises unlimited connectivity, but such connectivity requires that computers and devices find one another through a common address plan. The current plan, in place since the late 1970s, is running out of open addresses, and a new scheme called IPv6 is being put in place to power the Internet’s next stage of growth.

More from PC World…

Every device directly connected to the Internet needs an IP address. There are two versions: IP version 4, better known as IPv4, and IP version 6, aka IPv6. IPv4, the current version, holds 4,294,967,296 addresses, and about 92 percent of them have already been distributed. IPv6, the newer version, holds 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses.

The issue is simple: IPv4 addresses are running out, and fast. The solution to the address depletion is IPv6. This seemingly endless number of addresses holds the future of the Internet, but it requires companies that use and distribute IP addresses to adapt their networks and systems to use IPv6.

More from TMCNet…

With reports and rumors of a big “internet crunch” circulating, the Department of Defense is looking ahead to discern how it can take advantage of more advanced web protocols to enhance its mission.

Kris Strance, the chief of internet protocol for the department, said today in a “DoDLive” Bloggers Roundtable that the crunch – the potential loss of available address space for devices to connect to internet networks – likely won’t affect the Defense Department. But upgrading from internet protocol version four (IPv4) to version six (IPv6), he said, will allow for better network mobility and allow certain groups within the Defense Department to expedite their missions.

More from Defense.gov…