What happens when we run out of IPv4 addresses? <- Can no more devices connect to the internet?
In: Technology
Well, yes. That is exactly what will happen.
Once all the IPv4 addresses available are in use, nothing else can connect “directly” to the internet. Thanks to things like NAT (Network Address Translation) and CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) before that, we have been able to avoid running out, but there are no more IPv4 addresses available. You can still buy blocks of addresses, but no more are available to be given out.
The answer should be “switch to IPv6,” but since IPv6 has been around for like, a long time and a lot of organizations haven’t made the switch, I feel like it’s going to take catastrophe for the change to take place.
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