Tune in for WatchGuard’s IPv6 Readiness Webinar Series, Starting June 8th
In 1984, the capacity for 4.3 billion potential web addresses provided by IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) seemed like an enormous amount for the fledgling public Internet. However, rapid worldwide Internet adoption and the proliferation of devices (PCs, cars, smart phones, etc.), each requiring its own IP address, has depleted the amount of available IP addresses and necessitated development of a new addressing architecture, IPv6.
Not only will IPv6 scale to the Internet’s foreseeable growth by providing an exponential increase in IP addresses that can be assigned, but it may also deliver other benefits, such as faster network traffic and improved security. However, because IPv6 and IPv4 architectures are not compatible, it is essential for businesses to be ready and equipped for the transition.
Wednesday, June 8th, is World IPv6 Awareness Day and the Internet Society (IOSC) is sponsoring global testing of IPv6 content enablement. To coincide with this pivotal experiment and build further momentum in educating IT professionals and business decision makers as they make the significant transition, WatchGuard is launching its IPv6 Readiness Webinar Series.
On June 8th, WatchGuard will present three live webcasts (7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., and 8:00 p.m. PDT), and answer – IPv6: Hype or Reality. Hosted by Corey Nachreiner, Senior Network Security Analyst and Tim Helming, Director of Product Management, this pithy, hour-long session will offer a foundational overview of IPv6 as well as insight into how it will impact your business. Subsequent monthly webinars will provide more in depth education on security considerations, preparations for your network, and WatchGuard-related IPv6.
Register now and choose the optimal time for your schedule. A recording will be made available for those who cannot attend one of the live sessions.
Stay tuned via Twitter and Facebook for announcements about our future IPv6 webinars.
‘In 1984, the capacity for 4.3 billion potential web addresses…” This is anachronistic. In 1984, the term was not used as it is now, and there were not web servers, no web pages and no browsers.
“4.3 Billion web addresses”. Even today, this would be adequate. The depletion has been caused by poor allocation by the various registries. It is a failure to steer No organisation needs, for instance, a “Class A” or /8 (16.5 million) allocation of public addresses. If you “whois” the first 20 /8 allocations, the wasteful nature of allocations is evident: (1.0.0.0 /8- 20.0.0.0/8 = ~331.6 Million addresses. Those are shared between only 13 organisations. Excluding the 10.0.0.0/8 “Special” allocation, that is 330 Million addresses).
GE Internet (1x /8) – 16M addresses
Level 3 (2x /8) – 32M addresses
DoD (3x /8) – 48M addresses
IBM – (1x /8) – 16M addresses
AT+T (2x /8) – 32M addresses
Xerox (1x /8) – 16M addresses
HP (2x /8) – 32M addresses
Apple (1x /8) – 16M addresses
MIT (1x /8) – 16M addresses
Ford (1x /8) – 16M addresses
Computer Sciences Corporation (1x /8) – 16M addresses.
I have excluded RIR’s from this list. RIRs are the only place where a /8 can be justified, for further reduction and allocation. The main failure is where organisations with a closed network are allocating public addresses to every device.
It was the realisation that devices which only need to be accessed locally don’t need publically allocated addresses which led to RFC1918 in 1996. If more organisations (like those listed above) used proper NAT and RFC1918 addresses on the inside, there would be a surplus of IPv4 left. Further, if the registries actually enforced needs-based allocation, and queried the requests, we would be in a far better position. If the registries actually recovered “dormant” and oversubscribed allocations, and reallocated appropriately, the burden of change would be placed purely on those who have caused the problem, letting the rest of us get on with administering our networks and not chasing change.