IPv6 represents ‘major milestone’

The World IPv6 launch day has been announced as the 6th of June 2012 by the Internet Society which has described the day as a "major milestone."

With every PC, Laptop, smartphone and Internet capable device having an IP address and the boom in these devices , the last allocation of IPv4 addresses (approximately four billion IP addresses )on the current system has already been allocated to regional registries.

The new IPv6 system offers over 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses which experts say will provide plenty of addresses for the future.

When the last IPv4 allocations were handed out businesses were made aware that they would need to prepare for the switch to the new standard. As the two systems are not compatible the switch means that some old hardware will need to be replaced or updated.

A number of internet service providers are preparing their systems to ensure that at least 1% of their fixed line customers will be able to access to the new sites and a number of equipment manufacturers and other firms are already working towards enabling the new IPv6 websites to work on their systems or products.

Last year there were a number of tests to see how the new IPv6 system would fare and it was surmised that the best way to keep everything connected and web devices communicating would be a global adoption of the new system.

How will this affect you? Well luckily most home users will not be affected too much by the switch as most operating systems already support IPv6 such as Windows and Mac OS's. The affect will likely be the router that you use at home will not support the new system and will need to be updated or replaced.

The main work will need to be carried out by business with a large web presence and internet service providers as the plan is for the internet to migrate to IPv6 over the next three years.