The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
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The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
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Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#2Eventually in the future, people will come to realize the over-exaggeration of running out of ipv4 addresses. The unused blocks will come out of woodwork from everywhere. Well, I hope my opinion is wrong.
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#3No traces of this block in the public Internet doesn't mean it isn't being used. It may be in use in some internal network(s) instead of a private address range (yes, that happens).
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#4Eventually in the future, people will come to realize the over-exaggeration of running out of ipv4 addresses. The unused blocks will come out of woodwork from everywhere. Well, I hope my opinion is wrong.
There's still a finite number of IP addresses that is below all reasonable expectations for how many devices will be wanting an IP address. Reclaiming unused blocks just softens the shock by making the exhaustion less sudden and more gradual. We're still definitely going to run out.
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#5I'm not sure about the definition of 'unused', just because a network is not visible from the Internet and has no publicly registered ASNs doesn't mean its numbers are not in private use (which AFAIK, was always a legitimate use-case for getting an allocation, and in many ways preferable to reusing RFC1918 space).
Added to that, even if it was seeing only minuscule internal use, the UK government's IT project reputation suggests the renumbering would cost at least as much as the block would sell for, assuming the project would even complete prior to the entire planet properly migrating to v6 and the block losing its value.
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#6Eventually in the future, people will come to realize the over-exaggeration of running out of ipv4 addresses. The unused blocks will come out of woodwork from everywhere. Well, I hope my opinion is wrong.
By future do you mean right now where NAT is being used by some providers already? I know Rogers in Canada has all mobile devices going through NAT unless you pay a nice "VPN" fee.
Also the assigned but unused IPv4 blocks don't do anything for other providers that actually need addresses.
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#7Eventually in the future, people will come to realize the over-exaggeration of running out of ipv4 addresses. The unused blocks will come out of woodwork from everywhere. Well, I hope my opinion is wrong.
Once no more unused addresses turn up, they can start economizing on the used ones too. For example my university gives a publicly routed IP address to EVERY computer, even though most are completely firewalled off.
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#8Hooray, another /8, that'll last us for a good month or so. Exponential growth people, reclaiming unused IP blocks isn't going to stop it.
And that's ignoring the possibilities that a) it's being used internally by its legitimate owners b) it's being used internally by other people. T-Mobile were seen to be (mis)using the /8 that belongs to the UK MOD for their internal networks, I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing that with this as well.
There aren't that many IPv4 addresses. There are no easy fixes. Just move to IPv6 already.
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#9No doubt part of the strategic IP reserve :-)
There are a number of ways the IP addresses can not appear to the outside user and still be used as several have mentioned, and of course they can be for some project that isn't yet 'done' (the Coast Guard had a huge block like that as I recall) but the more interesting bit is to track the cost of getting an /24 network its inching up. At the time where the easy stuff has been reclaimed it will shoot up.
Re: The UK has an entire IPv4 /8 that it isn't using
#10Hooray, another /8, that'll last us for a good month or so. Exponential growth people, reclaiming unused IP blocks isn't going to stop it. And that's ignoring the possibilities that a) it's being used internally by its legitimate owners b) it's being used internally by other people. T-Mobile were seen to be (mis)using the /8 that belongs to the UK MOD for their internal networks, I wouldn't be surprised if they were…
Do you have an idea of how many IPv4 addresses that are unused or not really needed?
Between the bunch MIT got, the bunch that the military got and the bunch that IBM got, we can implement an entirely new protocol before we run out.