The Internet Expands On June 6, 2012

Instead of the internet grinding to a halt it’s set to rapidly expand, although the average user won’t feel the pain of the switch.

IPv4 is the current default home address for your internet connection, whether it’s received via computer, cell phone, television, etc. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses which allows for 4 billion unique addresses and we’ve used up all of it.

The solution? IPv6.

IPv6 on the other hand allows for 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 unique addresses. Essentially, anything can be connected to the internet.

Manufacturers like Thinfilm are currently in developmental and testing stages, as covered here, to provide us with the systems that can be used, due to the vast expansion of the internet.

June 6th, 2012, World IPv6 Launch Day, will mark the day that IPv6 goes mainstream.

Among the participants who will switch their ISP’s to IPv6 are; Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Yahoo, AT&T, Comcast, Free Telecom, Internode, KDDI, Time Warner Cable, XS4ALL, and Verizon. It’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll switch over, but won’t even notice it.

On June 8th, 2011, Google, Facebook, and about 300-something other organizations successfully launched World IPv6 Day, to test whether the IPv6 addresses would work.

Check out the vid below by PBS to see how World IPv6 Day went.