The Number Resource Organization warned Monday that the number of available IPv4 addresses had slipped below 10 percent, with one service predicting that the available addresses will expire in a bit more than a year.
The NRO said that two blocks of IPv4 addresses, representing about 1/256th each of the available addresses, had been given to APNIC, the regional Internet registry for the Asia-Pacific region.
Now, only twelve IPV4 blocks remain. One apiece will be allocated and handed out simultaneously to each of the five regions, leaving seven more to be apportioned by need.
Current IP addresses use the IPv4 format, which assigns users an IP address using four numbers, each from 1 to 256. (8.8.8.8 is an available DNS server IP address administered by Google, for example.) Addresses like pcmag.com are translated behind the scenes into their numeric equivalents, just like 800-DOMINOS equates to an actual phone number. Each new device that connects to the Internet is assigned a new IP address, although home networks can assign their own non-unique IPs via network address translation, or NAT.
The NRO said that two blocks of IPv4 addresses, representing about 1/256th each of the available addresses, had been given to APNIC, the regional Internet registry for the Asia-Pacific region.
Now, only twelve IPV4 blocks remain. One apiece will be allocated and handed out simultaneously to each of the five regions, leaving seven more to be apportioned by need.
Current IP addresses use the IPv4 format, which assigns users an IP address using four numbers, each from 1 to 256. (8.8.8.8 is an available DNS server IP address administered by Google, for example.) Addresses like pcmag.com are translated behind the scenes into their numeric equivalents, just like 800-DOMINOS equates to an actual phone number. Each new device that connects to the Internet is assigned a new IP address, although home networks can assign their own non-unique IPs via network address translation, or NAT.
