Internet is running out of IP addresses with none to be left next year

 Internet seems to have its addresses running short with none to be left as early as next year. According to a recent survey y the European Commission that polled the 610 government, educational and other industry organizations questioned across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, only 17% of them have shifted to a new Internet addressing technique called IPv6.

The address system that is going to dry out is not about web addresses typed into the address bar of the browser. It is about the underlying Internet protocol addresses that denote individual devices connected to the Internet. These addresses are almost gone.

"We'll be down to our last tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of web addresses by the end of next year," warned Sam Pickles, lead enterprise engineer of F5 Networks, in an interview with the Telegraph. "New companies looking to establish a presence on the internet will have no option but to adopt the IPv6 address format."

The current system called IPv4 was introduced back in 1981 when its creators thought that the 4 billion names created would last for ever. And today almost decades later we see the Internet is rapidly running out. If at that time there were only 500 computers connected to the network today it is not just a traditional desktop that consumes Internet resources, everyday millions of PCs, laptops, netbooks, cell phones, iPods and other mobile devices are being connected to the web which requires more address combinations.

More than 10 years ago a new system IPv6 was designed. It provides enough addresses for billions upon billions of devices. Besides, it improves Internet phone and video calls, while possibly even helping to end e-mail spam. The transition from the old system to the new one is relatively straightforward, though it involves the purchase of new networking equipment. But support has been built into Windows and Macintosh computers for years.

“Shortages are already acute in some regions,” London's Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development told the Times of London. “The situation is critical for the future of the Internet economy.”