IP addresses: In short supply!

There is a problem with all of this: Even though the traditional 32-bit (four-byte) IP address scheme consisting of four numbers (each between 0 and 255) offers 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 = 4,294,967,296 possible IP addresses (more, really, since there are certain "tricks" possible), this is not enough for today's Internet!

Thus, a new scheme for IP addresses is being introduced: IPv6. This is a 128-bit (16-byte) address scheme. At face value, this would seem to provide 256¹⁶ possibilities: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 combinations. However, again, given the clever addressing "tricks" that are part of this scheme, many more computers than this can be assigned IP addresses.

How big of a number is this? One person has noted that IPv6 would make it possible to assign an IP address to every molecule on the planet!

This chapter was written by Jeff Nyhoff and Joel Adams. Copy editing by Nancy Zylstra
©2005 Calvin University (formerly Calvin College), All Rights Reserved

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.