Save the IP addresses!

Volume 20, Number 5 • May 2000

Save the IP addresses!
by Michael Schuyler

THE VIEW FROM THE TOP LEFT CORNER column relates that the color copy machine for Kitsap Regional Library System in Bremerton, WA, has a presence on the Web with its own IP address. Adds that the color copier documents are collated and stapled, making the local printers obsolete. Predicts that telephones will also have IP addresses in order to call them up on the Web and download voice mail. Notes that that is why all the fiber-optic cable is being laid, and the importance of IP telephony is increasing. Points out that IP addresses are running out since all the operating systems in the world built their TCP/IP networking modules on the four-octet scheme. Says that a new model called IPv6 is currently in testing, and has an address length that is not 32 bits, but 128 bits long. Concludes that it had better be developed quickly as IPv4 space will run out completely somewhere between 2005 and the end of the decade.