> Bill Cunningham wrote: > > I've been hearing now for 2 years about the 128 bit IP addressing system and how >important it is. Why are we still using 32 > bit IP addresses if we need the 128 bit ones? > And if we do finally go this route, will the 128 bit IP addresses simply absorb the >32 bit addresses?
It's hard to know where to start. Probably http://www.ipv6forum.com is the best place; look for the various presentations or white papers. Or to toot my own trumpet, see http://www.isoc.org/briefings/001/ . Also see http://www.isoc.org/briefings/004/index.html on deployment issues. We are still using IPv4 with 32 bit addresses because upgrading to a new version of IP is a very hard thing to do and is bound to take years; some say it's impossible. IPv6 has its own addressing scheme. There are some transition mechanisms allowing IPv4 addresses to be used within IPv6 addresses, but that is only part of the story. In general, sites will simply get a new (bigger) range of addresses. Brian
