[At-Large] They're not out of IPv4 Addresses!

John R. Levine johnl at iecc.com
Sat Sep 15 14:51:30 UTC 2012


As the article made quite clear, they're into the last /8, but they are 
months if not at least a year away from running out.  Due to the way that 
space is reclaimed and reallocated, they'll probably continue to have some 
even after this /8 is given out.  If they were a more careful about who 
they give space to, they'd have even more.  (RIPE has a big problem with 
fake LIRs run by crooks.)

> It is now imperative that all stakeholders deploy IPv6 on their networks to
> ensure the continuity of their online operations and the future growth of
> the Internet.

Eventually IPv6 will work, I have v6 tunnels into my server and into my 
home LAN, but it's still surprisingly not ready for prime time, 
particularly in applications like mail and IM that have abuse management 
issues.

Close to half of all the allocated IPv4 space is not routed on the public 
Internet.  Once the free stuff runs out, there will be lots available for 
sale, and since there's so much, the price is not likely to be very high, 
perhaps $1/address in moderate sized chunks.  Before anyone points out how 
evil it is to charge for addresses, everything you do to get online costs 
some money, adding IPv6 capability is not free, either the technical 
upgrades or the staff training, and it can be entirely reasonable and cost 
effective to buy some IPv4 instead.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl at iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly



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