The final blocks of IPv4 protocol addresses have been allocated by IANA, the keeper of Internet addresses. For internet users this is a non-event, but from a technical standpoint, as Network World notes, IPv4's finale 'one of the most important days of the Internet'.
Rapid growth in Internet usage used up the last blocks of the roughly 4.2 billion original 32 bit IP addresses (known as IPv4). These addresses are the numbers used by the DNS to identify devices connected to the Internet. This day was predicted with considerable accuracy.
As the final Ipv4 addresses within these blocks are doled out it will be necessary to use the IPv6 protocol for IP addresses. This has already started, primarily in the Far East. With 2128 of addresses, we will never run out. Additionally, IPv6 is a more secure protocol and has other benefits for those that operate the internet. However, there are older servers, firewalls, load balancers, DNS servers, and other devices and software that may not be ready for IPv6 traffic or that do not handle both IPv4 ad IPv6 traffic gracefully. And both protocols will need to be supported seamlessly for some time.
For consumers this should be a non-event as the people who run the Internet have done an excellent job of staying ahead of the game with these changes. But it is quite a milestone when one considers just how interconnected the world has become.
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