IP addresses, which are numerical addresses similar to phone numbers issued to ensure that Internet users are able to reach websites and e-mails reach their destination, are in short supply these days. Experts have known that IP addresses will be depleted sooner or later, which is why a new kind of numerical address is on the way.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority issued the last five blocks of IP addresses, each with 16.8 million addresses, yesterday to regional registries around the world. These numbers, it is expected, will last up to nine months.
The "new" system in use is called Internet Protocal version 4, which has actually been around since the 1980s. Once the 4.3 billion version 4 numbers run out, service providers will then give out IPv6 numbers.
"You might find that you can't get online unless someone else goes offline," James Blessing, a member of the board of the U.K.'s Internet Service Providers Association, told The Guardian. "It would be like the Internet before broadband, when everything was on dial-up modems, and if too many people were dialing in then you couldn't get connected."
According to InformationWeek.com:
Martin Hannigan, a member of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) advisory board, acknowledged that there's an underground market for IP address blocks, despite the existence of legitimate transfer mechanisms. He anticipates that in the five to ten years it will take for the IPv6 transition to take hold, there's likely to be black market trade in IP addresses and that prices will rise. But he suggests such activity could actually accelerate IPv6 adoption, by making it more cost effective than IPv4.
