Europe has begun implementing stricter restraints for companies looking to use IPv4 addresses as it has almost exhausted its stock of old-style internet addresses. Ripe NCC that hands out addresses to European ISPs, firms and other organizations has started strict rationing of IPv4 as Europe. From now onwards, companies can make only one more application for the IPv4 addresses and on approval they can get only 1024 addresses. Any company looking for more old addresses must need to demonstrate how an organisation is using the new, replacement, addressing scheme.
Back in 1970’s when the web was built with 4.3 billion IP addresses , at that time it was thought that the addresses in the pocket are quite enough but the things changed drastically with the increase in web users.
“The day has come, finally,” said Axel Pawlik, managing director of the Ripe NCC that hands out addresses to European ISPs, firms and other organizations. “Applicants will only get about 1,000 addresses,” said Mr Pawlik, “and that’s it and they only get them once and that’s the end of it.”
To even get that small number of IPv4 addresses, he said, applicants must already have an allocation of IPv6 addresses and demonstrate how they planned to use them.
Immediately prior to reaching the last big block Ripe was handing out just under four million IPv4 addresses every 10 days.
Anyone planning expansion based around the net should already be committed to using IPv6, said Mr Pawlik.
Other techniques based around technical tricks that share IPv4 addresses among many different devices would prove increasingly unworkable, he said.
“They are complicated, potentially unstable and expensive,” he said. “The other route they could go is to v6 as it’s in most of the net equipment now.”
With the strict regulations in place, companies have already started converting the old IP address format to the newer version of addresses i.e. IPv6.
