IPv4 versus IPv6
April 23, 2008 – 10:45 amIs there a new version of Internet addressing coming our way soon?
Yes there are some changes on the horizon for the way Internet addresses are assigned. Currently you are probably familiar with the IP address on the network which is called IPv4 and that is expressed as four octets in “dotted decimal” notation (for example: 11.053.5.878). Not surprisingly because of the popularity of the Internet and websites the possible combinations within this networking addressing format will be used up in the not too distant future.  Thus there is new addressing system being deployed called IPv6. This new format is a 128-bit number that is conventionally expressed using hexadecimal strings (for example: 2001:0db8:582:ae33::29). This change does require a lot of the network carriers and equipment to be updated to handle the new format.  As a user of the Internet you probably will not even notice the difference because most websites are located using their domain name. If you would like more information on networking and Internet connectivity just give iNeedTech.com a call.