What EXACTLY will happen when the internets run out of IPs?

This is making my brain hurt. As you might know, or should have been knowing for quite a long time now, our dearest interwebs are be running out of tiny numbers to send data and communicate with.

But what will happen when the last IP gets taken?
I skim-read through this and didn't find anything other than dates and causes, but can anyone tell me what EXACTLY will happen? (Or what you think will happen.)
Will everyone who is not connected / does not have a static IP at the moment of IPcalypse get blocked out of the internet till they get IPv6 implemented world wide?
Is it even possible to answer this question?

 

You won't be able to get an IP, plain and simple. It's like the one time I was at work and our DHCP server ran out of IPs - it wasn't correctly releasing internal IPs. So you couldn't get an IP, so you had no network access.

The real answer to your question is that we'll move to IPv6 and nothing bad will happen. I already use IPv6 at work. Windows fully supports IPv6. This won't be a huge issue. Some of the major sites are already showing up on IPv6. We're ready for sites to move over. And as sites move over and leave IPv4 totally behind...IPv4 addresses may again become available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6#Major_milestones

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_address_exhaustion#Reclamation_of_unused_IPv4_space

Blame ISPs and hosts for not doing this SOONER. But the reclamation efforts will help sustain IPv4 a little longer. Their block allocations are pretty shitty.

 

ISPs are too busy swimming in their revenue to change to IP6.

 

Although when they run out of websites to sell I'm sure they'll change that.

 

I heard theres already a plan to fix this problem. Worrying about it is like Y2K.

 

As stated, IPV6 has more numbers.

 

So in the year 40,000 will we have like... IP20?

 

Well by about IPv8 you will probably have more numbers than there can feasibly be human beings on the planet, and once you get to interplanetary networking you should probably start relegating the internet to being a mere subnet of the main interplanetary network. So you would have each planet as an IP and then each internet as a subnet just as LANs are subnets of the internet, of sorts.

Of course in order to make mass interplanetary data transmission feasible you would probably have to invent FTL communications, possibly using quantum entanglement, unless you don't mind having a ping of several weeks.

 

Well, pretty easy what would happen, if there aren't any IPs left, you can't get one and thus not connect to anything, sooo you would have to wait and try reconnecting until you get one,
then it's maybe best not to turn your router off anymore :D

 

inb4 stargates yo

 

ROuter will have no effect. You may lose all of the public IPs, but private IPs wil still be there; every router in the world will have no problem handing those out; there can be 20 billion devices each allocated the address 192.168.0.100 and nothing would break as long as they are on different networks; it's a private IP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol_version_4#Private_networks

And not turning off your modem...well, DHCP will expire your lease. That said....the IP ranges are allocated by region. As long as your region hasn't hit it's max, you'll be fine. Mose consumers will likely be fine. Websites...servers...maybe not so fine.

IPv6 wil be in place for a long time I imagine. You've got 128 bits for every IP, vs IPv4's 32 bits.

255.255.255.255 is the max IPv4 address; 255 takes 8 bits to be formed; thus 32 bits.

The max IPv6 address in hex is: ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
In decimal, that is: 65535:65535:65535:65535:65535:65535:65535:65535

65535 in binary is 2^16, hence every hexadecimal value takes up 16 bits, and there are 8 hex parts.

The IPv6 address further breaks down to a 64bit prefit, and a 64 bit host address. I won't say that IPv6 is the be all, end all system, I'd likely have to eat my own words one day...but it will be in place for a long time.

 

By router I meant router and not switch, soo basically a switch with build in modem (I don't know a single router for home users in which this isn't the case), because modems are often not able to keep the internet connection alive w/o a pc connected (and running) while router often can ...

Often you can set times for refreshing the connection in routers which has to be done once a day so it won't expire, but ofc in ones own region there might be incredible less inet connections at 5 am active then there are at 5 pm,...

 

it's the beginning of the end of all known civilization... on the internet. Scientist should invent improbability drives instead of new IP systems.

 

Dude...I just had a brain aneurysm. No. A router is NOT a switch. A router is more than either a hub or a switch. A hub just sprays all network data to all devices. A switch will actually only send network data to its intended destination - hence switch. A router joins two networks together, hands out IP addresses of its own given is has a built in DHCP server and has a built in firewall...it has a lot more than a switch. Some routers will have a modem built in, but most don't. You don't know a SINGLE one? How about...or I don't know, every modem that Comcast gives you, every DSL modem your ISP gives you...my motorola Surfboard is just a modem and no more (and the Surfboards are regarded as the best modems out there.)

As for keeping a connection alive? What the hell are you talking about? The connection is always there on cable and DSL. And fiber.

Sure, in your ROUTER you can set refresh times for the PCs connected to your router since there is a DHCP server in there. My limited networking knowledge tells me though that the modem is given an IP and a expiration on that IP address is set by the DHCP server at the ISP that assigned you the IP. That means the server expects the IP to be free at the end of the lease, and you are expected to contact the server for a new IP address lease as soon as you hit the expiration time, or the first time you come online.

 

Oh god it's CCNA all over again

Not that I mind though, I was pretty good although Frame Relays melted my brain

 

Excactly what I said, it works like a switch with an build in modem,
also I don't know any routers for home users w/o a build in modem,
and honestly I don't care for the details of a switch my point was your "modem not router" arguement ...

Expiration time is 24h, some provider give you the option to set the IP refresh time in your router which gets synced with the provider,
most modems can't do that and are most likly useless if kept running, beside that some don't even support to keep the connection alive while noone connects to the modem

 

Dude, again...no. You....you know nothing.

My current router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704038&cm_re=tp-link-_-33-704-038-_-Product
My old router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124362

Do you see a modem ANYWHERE in those? Look at 99% of all Linksys, Netgear DLink and other routers. They don't have a modem. A switch is far dumber than a router in terms of it's function; a hub even dumber than a switch. A switch does not link two separate networks together; a router does. A router typically links a WAN - Wide Area Network (like the internet) to a LAN - a Local Area Network. You connect a modem to the WAN uplink port via a ethernet cable...but there is no router build in. You either don't know what a modem is, or you're just a fucking retartd. Hell, maybe both.

As for the lease time, again. No. Depends on how the DHCP server at the ISP is set. They can expire the IP in hours, or in days. In comcasts current config for me, I get an IP address lease for 7 days.

You obviously know just enough about networking to say some words that have meaning, but you don't know the meaning of the words themselves. You're clueless in this arena. So go on wikipedia, or find a nice networking book and shove off for a while.

 

Kane, y u so stoopid.

 

Here it's 24h only, I don't care for whatever fucked up provider you have in your country or anyone else.

And here I just forgot for a second what an asshole I'm talking with, go buy more crappy hubs w/o a build in modem if that's your std or a router that can actually connect with the internet but still not with the same function of a modem, I DO NOT CARE,

STOP MAKING MY EYES BLEED WITH YOUR LOW INSULTS OR I ENSURE YOU A FLAME WAR STARTS, I seriously gonna ignore you in the future if you have to prove your ignorance to your boss ...

My point is that I know routers which can sync with the ISP DHCP IP allocation system, yet you point to "it's not a switch and I know routers which can't connect to the internet hoho" like the worst retarted child I ever seen, grow up seriously...

I said "router often can" and "I don't know of routers which don't work as a modem for home use", because I obviously don't know any which you would use in your home, I wouldn't say that otherwise, sure if you need routers in your home to connect 2 networks together, fine by me but I still don't care...
so what's your point?