By Elizabeth Puranam
This Wednesday marked the most anticipated event on the internet since the Y2K bug at the turn of the millennium.
It was the debut of IPv6 – a new system of internet addresses – which we’ll all have to switch to, because the current addresses are running out.
So what do you need to know about the change?
There are around 3.5 million internet connections in New Zealand and almost 3 billion in the world.
Each connection has an IP – internet protocol – address.
But how much do we know about them?
An IP address is like a phone number for an internet connection. The current system of designating addresses is Internet Protocol version of IPv4 – and its 4.2 billion addresses have run out.
This Wednesday, Google, Facebook and a bunch of big websites all around the world tested IPv6.
What’s driving the change is the growing number of internet users, especially in India, China and the Asia Pacific region.
As for the change itself, the two systems will run side by side for anywhere between the next five to 15 years.
For the average internet user with a home internet connection, the switch to IPv6 will be automatic and done by the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
But it’s trickier for businesses, whose networks are more complicated.
With IPv6 offering a practically infinite number of addresses, they should last for the foreseeable future – until we’re doing interplanetary internet.
3 News