51–60 of 127 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
At MIT a 30 person living group gets 18.n.x.x
There are lots of stories like this. Many of them are worse; at least you can imagine that the UK is holding these addresses in reserve. There are companies with giant allocations that are holding them so that they can give every desktop and every printer in their enterprise a routable address; others are doing the same thing, but also operating flat, unrouted networks . More evidence for the core problem: fiat alloc…
There are lots of stories like this. Many of them are worse; at least you can imagine that the UK is holding these addresses in reserve. There are companies with giant allocations that are holding them so that they can give every desktop and every printer in their enterprise a routable address; others are doing the same thing, but also operating flat, unrouted networks . More evidence for the core problem: fiat alloc…
...and, anyone who didn't have $1bn to spend would be SOL. There's plenty of numbers to go around; the sooner we get to v6 and get around this mess, the better.
IPv4 addresses are a scare resource. Acknowledging that, and allowing them to be traded at a price that reflects their value, is the surest way to get them out of the hands of those who are wasting them in the way tptacek and the article describe and into the hands of those who will do something more productive with them. Pricing IPv4 addresses would hasten adoption of IPv6 by providing a financial incentive to switch from IPv4 to IPv6 to those who can do so most easily (i.e., cheaply).
In other words, if you want to "get around this mess", stop allocating scarce and valuable IPv4 addresses as if they have no value.
Who cares? IPv4 is a dead technology and this is like complaining that the UK has a bunch of fax machines in storage somewhere. 10 years ago, this would have been a waste. Now it doesn't even matter. Even Comcast supports IPv6.
So how do you envision the transition taking place? Given that 6 and 4 talk past each other.
All that's left are the clients, and the way I see that transition happening is in the low-cost sector. Sort of like an AOL where you won't have IPv4, so you'll have to access everything through a proxy except IPv6 sites. Eventually businesses will want to cater to this demographic and the stragglers will flip the IPv6 switch. With nobody on IPv4, it won't be a premium value-add anymore, and that era will be a distant memory of the past like BBSes are now.
Right now the IPv4 situation is not bad enough to make widespread IPv6 support critical to one's economic viability yet. Being able to see the animated turtle on kame.net isn't quite enough of an incentive, but the incentives will slowly shift.
(I see the same transition away from fossil fuels. Right now, an investment in alternative energies is pure speculation: it may pay off someday, but we don't know when that day is. When we've run out, though, the payoff will be clear: you will get infinite money the second you figure out some way to give humanity energy. This will encourage more investment than some nebulous LEED certification will. Tax credits are nice, but not as nice as cash.)
Can IP blocks actually be sold?
IP blocks are "licensed", not sold. These licenses can be transferred, but only under certain strict conditions.
The ARIN CEO stated [1]
«As you may be aware, ARIN is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) responsible for Internet number resource management for Canada, United States, and parts of the Caribbean. In keeping with the policies developed by the community in this region, there are two possible ways to transfer IPv4 number resources to another party (via merger & acquisition transfer or via specified transfer), and these are detailed in section 8 of the Number Resource Policy Manual on the ARIN website at https://www.arin.net/policy/nrpm.html>
It is important to note that transfer of number resources via either method must be to another party that can demonstrate corresponding need. ARIN's registration services department can assist with this determination in advance or at the time of transfer. ARIN reiterates the importance of veracity in transfer requests and supporting documentation as fraudulent information can result in resource revocation.»
NRPM section 8 [2] says
«Number resources are nontransferable and are not assignable to any other organization unless ARIN has expressly and in writing approved a request for transfer.
…
It should be understood that number resources are not 'sold' under ARIN administration. Rather, number resources are assigned to an organization for its exclusive use for the purpose stated in the request, …»
Older blocks allocated directly from IANA have different conditions attached to them that may render the transfer of the these licenses simpler or harder.
[1] http://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2011-August/038888....
Earlier quoted context omitted.
At MIT a 30 person living group gets 18.n.x.x
Posting from our own 18.n.0.0/16 Class B subnet right now. There's a few thousand available IPs for each person who lives here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
and that's extremely profitable for them. Why would they switch to a format that doesn't give them the easy out to gouge customers?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So how do you envision the transition taking place? Given that 6 and 4 talk past each other.
The transition has sort of already happened. Most software stacks support IPv6 now, and many server hosting companies are giving out IPv6 addresses like candy. (I think I have a /48 or something for jrock.us. That's 2 to the 48th IPv4 Internets! I have a lot of computers, but not that many.) All that's left are the clients, and the way I see that transition happening is in the low-cost sector. Sort of like an AOL whe…
Seriously, unless you want to be posting to HN via IPv4 in 2050, there is clearly something major left undone. Don't call it a transition if you think that concept is undone, but it's not yet functionally possible to be on the Internet with no IPv4 stack or (possibly NATted) address, and I don't see that becoming the case anytime soon.
See http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/ipv6mess.html for a description of the problem that I mostly agree with. The depressing thing is that those complaints are no less valid a decade later.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Posting from our own 18.n.0.0/16 Class B subnet right now. There's a few thousand available IPs for each person who lives here.
Which will be great for testing my Raspberry Pi distributed web server. But useless for anyone who doesn't know / care what an IP address is (70% of us?)