Making Room for the Next 2 Billion People Online

Interested in moving onto the Internet in its current form? You’re too late. The Internet is completely full. According to the Number Resource Organization, the world officially ran out of IPv4 addresses in February 2011.

To many who are lucky to have access the Internet could seem like an enormous medium full of endless ideas.  But to connect with and create those ideas, your computer requires a unique, identifiable address, called an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

Most of us are currently using version 4 (or IPv4).  That means it’s using a series of four numbers to give your computer a unique address online.

But just like any new and growing town, at some point all the homes become occupied. What’s the solution?  Internet Protocol Version 6 or, as everyone is calling it, IPv6.

World IPv6 Launch

Major ISPs, home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world are coming together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services by 6 June 2012.

Organised by the Internet Society, and building on the successful one-day World IPv6 event held on 8 June 2011, World IPv6 Launch represents a major milestone in the global deployment of IPv6. As the successor to the current Internet Protocol, IPv4, IPv6 is critical to the Internet's continued growth as a platform for innovation and economic development.

Find out how you can join the launch.

Why IPv6?

To some, the switch to IPv6 might not seem to be something that needs to be rushed.  After all, the programmes you use still work and everything about your experience on the Internet has pretty much stayed the same. But it won’t stay that way.

A lack of Internet addresses means that eventually:

• Your favorite web programmes will slow down.
• Computers will have a harder time communicating with each other, making the ability to offer services like Skype difficult.
• Your privacy could be compromised because with all the dividing of addresses, it will be hard to tell the difference between you and another computer user down the street.

The following pages offer solutions for every day users, business, and governments when it comes to helping ensure IPv6 is not only understood, but also implemented.