About a decade ago I read news stories (on the internet of course) that yes, eventually the internet will simply run out of IP addresses. This is because the internet primarily assigns IPv4 addresses. You know them as four numbers separated by periods, such as 192.168.1.100.
The solution to the problem is the assignment of IPv6 addresses. More on that in a moment.
Google says in somewhere in the year 2011 (which is not that far away) IPv4 space exhaustion will occur according to current predictions. As such, the Google search engine is available right now over IPv6 at ipv6.google.com. If you’re actually on an IPv6 connection you can connect there now. If not (which counts for the vast majority of us at the present time,) it won’t work.
Some quick notes on IPv6 support
Q: Does Windows XP support IPv6?
A: Yes, but it’s not installed as a default protocol. However installing it is relatively painless.
Q: Does Mac OS X support IPv6?
A: Yes.
Q: Does Linux support IPv6?
A: Yes. In fact, Linux was first to support it way before anyone else.
Will you have to buy a new router when IPv6 becomes mainstream?
Most likely. Granted, some routers have IPv6-enabling abilities in them but yours most likely doesn’t.
Are there any write-ups on how IPv6 would work in the home?
Yes. Microsoft has a detailed write-up explaining in-home network setups using IPv6.
Do you have to prepare for IPv6 now?
No. But in 2010, yes.
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Rich,
I have to disagree with your answer to “Do you have to prepare for IPv6 now?”. You state “No. But in 2010, yes.”.
It’s NOW that enterprise networks and end users should be enabling IPv6, not in 2010. As the support for IPv6 has matured (Yes – Vista, Server 2008, Linux and Mac OS X all come IPv6 enabled) end users can experiment with IPv6 now vs. being caught off guard in two years. Even a simple Windows XP box can be enabled with an “ipv6 install” command at the cmd prompt.
Here at Hurricane Electric, we have just published a letter to our customer-base saying exactly that. Get prepared now; don’t wait. A copy can be found at: http://he.net/news/Hurricane_Electric_IPv6_Update_April_2008.pdf and takes the approach that now vs. later is better.
Finally, your point about routers and support for IPv6 is a little too generic. Even a five-year-old Cisco 36xx router I recently looked at was fully capable of running IPv6 routing at an end-point. It’s even capable of terminating an IPv6 tunnel. Sometimes that old hardware can surprise you!
Enjoy,
Martin