[ti:Shortage of Internet Addresses, but a Slow Move to New System] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Technology Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:03.24]Technology Report. [00:05.23]Last Wednesday, June eighth, [00:07.67]was World IPv6 Day [00:11.49]-- the first major deployment [00:13.84]of Internet Protocol version 6. [00:17.37]Hundreds of Internet service [00:19.80]providers and Web companies [00:22.29]tested IPv6 on their websites. [00:26.22]This new numbering system [00:28.92]for Internet addresses [00:30.75]has been available for years. [00:33.90]But very few companies [00:35.39]have switched to it. [00:37.28]Yet the old system [00:39.47]could run out of addresses [00:41.56]this year because of [00:43.42]all the growth in online devices. [00:47.11]Doug Szajda, [00:48.61]a computer science professor [00:50.61]at the University of Richmond [00:53.00]in Virginia, explains. [00:54.79]DOUG SZAJDA: "It's sort of like [00:55.98]the post office of the Internet. [00:57.44]It tells you how to get information [00:59.69]from one computer to another. [01:01.82]Currently, and since around [01:03.51]nineteen eighty, [01:04.34]the addressing system [01:06.45]has been IP version 4. [01:09.36]But the problem with that [01:12.39]is that we've run out of addresses. [01:14.44]So it's almost as if, [01:16.07]when a new house is built, [01:17.96]you can't give it an address [01:19.31]because you don't have any more." [01:20.61]IPv4 was designed to handle [01:24.05]just over four billion IP addresses. [01:27.57]Doug Szajda says that seemed [01:30.32]like more than enough [01:32.02]DOUG SZAJDA: "At the time [01:33.06]that IP version 4 was designed, [01:36.70]the designers were anticipating [01:39.53]perhaps thousands of users [01:42.77]of the Internet someday, [01:44.76]and certainly thinking [01:46.08]that four billion addresses [01:47.77]was many more than we would ever need." [01:49.86]Yet now, not just computers [01:52.72]but smartphones, cars, [01:54.95]televisions, game systems [01:57.45]and plenty of other devices [01:59.38]all connect to the Internet. [02:02.27]Each uses a different IP address. [02:05.66]The basic standards for IPv6 [02:09.10]were first published [02:10.57]in nineteen ninety-eight. [02:12.76]Doug Szajda says [02:14.50]its most important feature [02:16.78]is the ability to provide [02:19.27]what seems like an unlimited [02:21.33]number of IP addresses. [02:24.32]Well, there is a limit [02:26.61]-- three hundred forty trillion [02:28.90]trillion trillion in fact, [02:31.62]or three hundred forty undecillion. [02:34.57]That's three hundred forty [02:36.46]followed by thirty-six zeros. [02:39.78]Experts say the challenge now [02:42.83]is to get the world to use it. [02:45.22]Mr. Szajda says that was [02:47.87]the real purpose of last week's [02:50.29]World IPv6 Day sponsored [02:54.08]by the Internet Society. [02:56.33]DOUG SZAJDA: "It was less [02:57.26]a worldwide test than a means [03:00.67]of generating some incentive [03:03.70]for vendors to realize [03:05.85]we can't drag our feet anymore. [03:08.38]This has to happen." [03:10.03]The process of switching to IPv6 [03:14.15]can be complex and costly. [03:16.30]This could explain why [03:18.84]so few companies [03:20.64]have made the switch. [03:22.04]CompTIA, the Computing [03:25.02]Technology Industry Association, [03:27.35]recently did an opinion study. [03:30.54]The group talked to more than [03:33.18]four hundred information technology [03:35.88]and business leaders [03:37.67]in the United States. [03:39.56]Only twenty-one percent said [03:42.85]they have started doing work [03:45.01]to upgrade their networks [03:47.10]to the new system. [03:48.70]And that's the VOA Special English [03:52.57]Technology Report, [03:54.32]written by June Simms. [03:56.21]I'm Steve Ember.