Are we running out of Web addresses?

Growth in internet use across the world, by region

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By Jim DeBrosse, Staff Writer Updated 12:25 AM Sunday, June 6, 2010

What if you had a brand-new computer and no way to connect it to the Internet?

Some Internet experts are warning that could be the case in just 18 months as rising world demand depletes the number of available IP addresses — the unique codes that every device from PCs to smart phones must have to access the Internet.

Although a solution is in the works — a new system of unlimited IP addresses that will provide greater security and more user features — most businesses and organizations have been slow to adopt the new system because of its cost and complexity.

“People don’t like change,” said Bryan Fite, a Dayton-based digital security consultant. The result will be a dual system of old and new addresses that may present technical challenges for the Web no one can foresee, he said. “It’s like mixing jet fuel and unleaded gas in your car. You might make it around the block, but you don’t know what you’ve done to your engine.”

The current address system, IPv4, was devised in the 1970s, when Internet founders never imagined that all 4 billion IP addresses would ever be put to use. The new system, IPv6, will generate more than 2 billion addresses for each of the 6.8 billion people on the planet.

Like global warming, the address shortage has been hotly debated among experts for years. “It’s balderdash,” said Wright State University’s Roger Carlsen, who trains teachers in digital technology. Even if the public IP addresses are depleted, Carlsen said, businesses and consumers can add multiple devices that connect to the Internet via a single public device, a process called network address translation (NAT).

Experts agree, however, that a switch to IPv6 is the only practical long-term solution.

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