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Breaking down IP addresses.
An IP address consists of four numbers, which are called 'octets'. Why are they called 'octets'? Cause computers read these numbers in binary, baby! An octet is a number that is eight bits long. A bit is the smallest number that can be computed (on or off, zero or one).
The binary number 11111111 converts to 255 in the decimal system. When you include 00000000, you get a total range of 256 numbers per octet. With four octets, to calculate the maximum possible IP address combinations, you just resolve:
256 ^ 4 = 4,294,967,296
There was a time when four billion IP addresses seemed like a lot. It's not anymore. That's not even one IP address per person. There's even less than that available, as many of the numbers are taken up by routers, and some ranges are reserved for internal routing, and other functions.
This is why IPv6 is coming out. It's 128 bits long, as opposed to 32 bits. It's going to be written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, and they will be separated by a colon instead of a decimal.
128 bits is huge (2^128). There's going to be 3.4x10^38 possible IP addresses. It's going to be very expensive to switch over to IPv6, but it's happening soon. Vista currently supports it, but your router at home probably doesn't.
It's going to be annoying to have to type in a new IPv6 address, as they are going to look like this: 2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7348, but we're finally going to be able to network our toaster, coffee maker, alarm clock, and george forman grill.
An IP address consists of four numbers, which are called 'octets'. Why are they called 'octets'? Cause computers read these numbers in binary, baby! An octet is a number that is eight bits long. A bit is the smallest number that can be computed (on or off, zero or one).
The binary number 11111111 converts to 255 in the decimal system. When you include 00000000, you get a total range of 256 numbers per octet. With four octets, to calculate the maximum possible IP address combinations, you just resolve:
256 ^ 4 = 4,294,967,296
There was a time when four billion IP addresses seemed like a lot. It's not anymore. That's not even one IP address per person. There's even less than that available, as many of the numbers are taken up by routers, and some ranges are reserved for internal routing, and other functions.
This is why IPv6 is coming out. It's 128 bits long, as opposed to 32 bits. It's going to be written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, and they will be separated by a colon instead of a decimal.
128 bits is huge (2^128). There's going to be 3.4x10^38 possible IP addresses. It's going to be very expensive to switch over to IPv6, but it's happening soon. Vista currently supports it, but your router at home probably doesn't.
It's going to be annoying to have to type in a new IPv6 address, as they are going to look like this: 2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7348, but we're finally going to be able to network our toaster, coffee maker, alarm clock, and george forman grill.
Again, very well explained! I wonder how long the transition period of supporting both the old IP and new IP system will last. I'm guessing a long time... But I can't wait to BBQ me some meat on the internets!
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IPv6 will still work with DHCP to automatically obtain IP addresses right? DHCPv6 or somesuch?
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DHCPv6 (let's call it), will function more or less the same, but will be less DHCP servers out there in the field. What's interesting, is that there's going to be so many IP addresses, that we're not going to have to use NAT (network address translation) to get around the IP address shortage. No more assigning internal addresses to each device on your LAN, everybody gets a nice external address.
I HAVE HACKED YOUR COFFEE MAKER. HOPE YOU ENJOY DECAF!
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