ureadit

This evening I’m trying out eyeglasses for the first time. I’ve never had to wear glasses before, but then, I’ve never turned 50 before either. I suppose everything wears out with age, and my eyes are no exception. The glasses are the “progressive lens” type, which means that the focal length changes gradually as I look through different parts of the lens. Basically, the lower the angle I cast my eyes, the shorter the focal length. Thus, the lower part of my vision looks distorted, and since I’ve developed astigmatism in my eyes over the years, the glasses, which now correct for it, gives me the illusion that the earth is on a slant.

Anyway, what does this have to do with my blog? Well, I’m going to stretch a bit and say that as things get older, they change, and so it is with IPv4. IPv4, the currently deployed protocol that carries Internet traffic, has just about hit its limit. Its replacement, IPv6, is on its way in, and it seems to be accelerating in popularity. For example, Google just enabled YouTube for IPv6, and instantly, they were flooded with IPv6 traffic. Apparently there are a lot of early IPv6 adopters out there just waiting for the popular sites to implement the new Internet standard so they can be among the first to use it.

Hats off to Google for having the initiative to be among the first to move to this new technology.

I looked into this subject further and wondered if my website provider, Dreamhost, is on top of this situation. According to one of their internal Wikis, they will initially offer IPv6 static addresses free with every website hosted by them. I have written a letter to their support department and asked to be put on the list for getting a free static address when they become available. I advise you to do the same. Out of necessity, many websites hosted by the same company will share their public IPv4 addresses because there are not too many such addresses available. With IPv6, however, there are plenty addresses available, and sharing will not be necessary.

 

  

 

When will the switchover to IPv6 hit critical mass? My guess is that it will happen within the next three years. Some experts are claiming that by 2012, we will have no choice, because there will simply be no more IPv4 address space remaining. When (not if) the switchover occurs, it will probably happen without too much pain because, behind the scenes these past 5 years or so, the big router companies like Cisco, Juniper, et al have been implementing what are known as “dual stack” technology into their equipment. This means that their equipment will route IPv6 just as easily as IPv4, so the switchover can – theoretically – happen in an instant. No doubt, there will be some hiccoughs, but overall, we should be ready when the need arises.

What about your home router? That might be a problem. I just looked at my Verizon FIOS router and did not see anything remotely pertaining to IPv6. Oops! They may have to replace the router at my site. Home switches should be okay, as they operate at a level just below IPv4, and to them, IPv4 and IPv6 are indistinguishable.

What about your home PC? If you’re using Windows XP (SP2 or later), Vista or Windows 7, there’s theoretically nothing to worry about. They’ve already included IPv6 in their stack. In fact, if you open a command window and type “ipconfig /all”, you’ll see some IPv6 addresses popping up. I don’t know about the Mac OSX, but I suspect they’ve included IPv6 in their OS as well. Hey, if Microsoft is on top of this situation, it’s a good bet that all the others are there too.

Bottom line is that we are being forced into the future, and it looks like IPv6 will be here sooner rather than later. When big companies like Google begin embracing it with YouTube, it won’t be long before others follow suit. If you have a website hosted by a third party (doesn’t everybody?), you should check to ensure they have a switchover plan already in place, because when IPv6 hits critical mass, the world will change quickly, and anyone still using IPv4 will rapidly find themselves isolated like a 50-year-old guy wearing a leisure suit with bell bottom slacks.

Best,

Dan

 

BTW: I've written about IPv6 in an earlier post if you want more information. 

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