OHNO-OMG

[russian roulette]

I'm totally gonna produce single board and full paper home computer systems that wor with TV screns!!!!11111111eleven1

All tv screens can be a monitor as long as you have a vga port.

[NFX]

Is this expert Bill Nye?

Another thing, if there aren't enough IP addresses, can't they just reclaim the ones that have become defunct? Say, if an IP address hasn't been used for a year, then it goes back into the pool of IP addresses and can be reassigned to something else, same as with mobile phone numbers.

Smartphones. I hate the damn things. Partly because everyone thinks they're cool if they have one, partly because they're responsible for some of the theoretical running out of IP addresses, but mostly because if you lose it, you are utterly screwed.

[JoeBlo]

I dont see the problem, all my computers and phone have IP addresses already, so running out isnt a problem.. just tough luck for the next generations :P

[Serge]

Another thing, if there aren't enough IP addresses, can't they just reclaim the ones that have become defunct? Say, if an IP address hasn't been used for a year, then it goes back into the pool of IP addresses and can be reassigned to something else, same as with mobile phone numbers.

Well, most IPs are assigned by contract, so you can't just reclaim an IP from someone that bought them.

Smartphones. I hate the damn things. Partly because everyone thinks they're cool if they have one, partly because they're responsible for some of the theoretical running out of IP addresses, but mostly because if you lose it, you are utterly screwed.

Way to generalize. EVERYONE that has a smartphone thinks they're cool? Does the usual businessman that uses a Blackberry to connect to their Exchange server think that they're awesome? No, it's just a tool, a pretty useful but dreaded terminal (since it makes you reachable everywhere all the time). Neither do I, owner of an iPhone, think that I'm cool. It's a work tool for me. I use it to browse the intertubez or to communicate with my clients when I'm not home or on the train (FYI: I do about 4 hours of transit every weekday).

The IPv4 protocol should have been abandoned long ago. Blame residential ISPs for the fact that we still use it.

[Sparkey98]

I don't understand why an IP has a number limit. Why should it?

[Serge]

Because the first IP address is 0.0.0.0 and the last one is 255.255.255.255. It's 256^4 or 2^32.

[Gigafrost]

@Sparkey, Everything that is beneficial and is in excess has to be retained somehow. Technologists, Inventors, Businessmen and Businesswomen, or anyone who has come up with a solution that makes life either more easier, accessible, and/or more affordable for all of us all knows this. To be frank. It isn't good practice to make any good or service limitless, even if it's free. To answer your question on the IP number limit, All of the IP addresses are stored in some system somewhere. It makes it easier to limit it to a series of numbers for efficiency. Could you imagine trying to register an IP address that is  25-30 characters long? After while it would seem pretty pointless.

IPv6 is supposedly going to offer us millions (maybe billions) more IP addresses to use. This means more web-accessible smartphones and devices, more web sites and hosting services, and more genuine online securities and other applications that require a separate IP. They say that this version is also more secure than IPv4, but it is still not completely bug free.

[Sparkey98]

Good point.

[Serge]

Gigafrost, I already said most of these. Also, security is based on the application (7th) and presentation (6th) layer and not the network (3rd) layer.

Also, IPv6 is going to be 32 characters, hexadecimal, long.

[Gigafrost]

Gigafrost, I already said most of these. Also, security is based on the application (7th) and presentation (6th) layer and not the network (3rd) layer.

True. I mixed up my details. I meant to reference the fact that they claim that IPv6 should be more "Network Secure" but is as of now I'm only getting this data from Wikipedia. They also say something about re-engineering IPsec with may or may not be a big thing.

Also, IPv6 is going to be 32 characters, hexadecimal, long.

Yup, This is going to be the biggest difference from IPv4.