Everyone who follows technology news knew that the day we would run out of IPv4 addresses was coming. It seems it has, and we are in the final days.
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), a non-profit group that manages Internet addresses for Canada, most Caribbean countries, and the United States, has announced that it has activated its Unmet Request Policy.
This means that there are no longer enough IPv4 address blocks to meet demand.
How many are left? Of the ARIN addresses, the IPv4 Address Report shows only 0.0085 /8 IPv4 address blocks. In Greek, instead of Internet terminology, ARIN does not have enough blocks of 500 addresses. In other words, the blocks they have will last them for another two to four weeks.
If you need physical Internet addresses, there are several options. First, you can grab the largest available block of IPv4 addresses that ARIN has. Then, you can buy IPv4 addresses from an Internet address reseller, or you can join a waiting list for IPv4 addresses.
The smart move, however, is to switch to IPv6, as IPv4 addresses are running out. With the growth of mobile devices and, more recently, the Internet of Things, IPv4 addresses have been depleted faster than anticipated.
So, as ARIN CEO John Curran states:
“It is time for Internet service providers to move to IPv6 for the continued growth of the Internet.
Businesses should be aware that this transition is already underway for many service providers in all countries, and that websites accessible via IPv6 perform best.”
