IPv4 Markets

‘The Global Village’ Idiot

I recall from some years back, when we were debating in Australia some national Internet censorship proposal de jour, that if the Internet represented a new Global Village then Australia was trying very hard to position itself as the Global Village Idiot. And the current situation with Australia's new Data Retention laws may well support a case for reviving that sentiment. more

Are We Ready to Switch Off IPv4?

At the RIPE 67 meeting in Athens, Greece, the RIPE IPv6 Working Group ran a little experiment to test the feasibility of an IPv6-only network and to identify challenges in user experience. While the results were highly encouraging, they indicated that there is still work to be done before IPv4 can be switched off once and for all. As IPv6 is slowly but surely deployed around the world, we've entered a phase where it's necessary for your devices to be able to communicate using either of the two IP protocols currently in use. more

2% of All Traffic to Google Now Over IPv6! (Doubling in Past Year)

This weekend brought the great news that Google's IPv6 statistics have shown that connections over IPv6 to Google's web sites hit the 2% threshold for the first time. (You can see for yourself.) While 2% sounds tiny, as I wrote in a Deploy360 post today, the important fact here is that this represents a doubling of IPv6 traffic to Google over the past year! more

All IP Addresses Are Not the Same

One IP address is much the same as another - right? There's hardly a difference between 192.0.2.45 and 192.0.2.46 is there? They are just encoded integer values, and aside from numerological considerations, one address value is as good or bad as any other - right? So IP addresses are much the same as each other and an after-market in IP addresses should be like many other markets in undistinguished commodity goods. Right? more

The Death of IP Based Reputation

Back in the dark ages of email delivery the only thing that really mattered to get your email into the inbox was having a good IP reputation. If your IP sent good mail most of the time, then that mail got into the inbox and all was well with the world. All that mattered was that good IP reputation. Even better for the people who wanted to game the system and get their spam into the inbox, there were many ways to get around IP reputation. more

IPv6: Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

The theory put forward by the IETF was simple enough... while there were still enough IPv4 addresses, use transition technologies to migrate to dual stack and then wean IPv4 off over time. All nice and tidy. The way engineers, myself included, liked it. However those controlling the purse strings had a different idea. more

Addressing 2012: Another One Bites the Dust

Time for another annual roundup from the world of IP addresses. What happened in 2012 and what is likely to happen in 2013? This is an update to the reports prepared at the same time in previous years, so lets see what has changed in the past 12 months in addressing the Internet, and look at how IP address allocation information can inform us of the changing nature of the network itself. more

IPv6 Presents a Security Paradox for the Network

The capabilities IPv6 provides will enhance online security, but the shift to the new Internet address scheme may also present risks if not properly managed. Previously, Internet security was largely an after-thought for the early Internet, as its primary purpose was to facilitate open, end-to-end, any-to-any communications and information exchange for bridging and accelerating research efforts. Today, we have a much more complex online ecosystem that spans billions of users across the globe and serves not only as an engine for e-commerce, but as an engine for all commerce. more

The RIRs in a Post-IPv4 world: Is the End of IP Address Policy Making Nigh?

IANA's IPv4 pool was officially exhausted in early 2011; Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) are gradually eating through their remaining IPv4 reserves and, although there will always be a trickle of recycled IPv4 addresses coming through as businesses go bust or ISPs move entirely to IPv6, the bulk of RIR IPv4 activity in future will be maintenance of existing allocation records... While IPv6 is definitely the way of the future for the Internet, the sheer size of the IPv6 address pool, combined with simplified allocation policies that have deliberately reduced barriers to entry, means there are very few organizations that can't get IPv6 directly from the RIRs these days. more

NTIA Awards IANA Functions Contract to ICANN

The U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today that it has awarded the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions contract to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The IANA functions are key technical services critical to the continued operations of the Internet's underlying address book, the Domain Name System (DNS). more

Is IPv6 a Boon to Criminals and Foe to the FBI?

Declan McCullagh recently opined that the "FBI [and the] DEA warn [that] IPv6 could shield criminals from police." His post was picked-up relatively widely in the past few days, with the headlines adding more hyperbole along the way. So just how real is this threat? Let's take a look. more

The Business Parallels Between IPv6 and DNSSEC

For two things that would seem to be completely unrelated there is an interesting parallel between IPv6 and DNSSEC. In both cases there is a misalignment of interests between content providers and service?providers. Content providers aren't highly motivated to deploy IPv6 because only a small proportion of users have v6 connectivity and even fewer only have v6. Service providers aren't anxious to deploy IPv6? because there isn't a lot of content on v6, and virtually none exclusively on v6 - so they don't expand the universe of interesting stuff on the web by deploying IPv6. Basically the same things could be said about DNSSEC. more

IPv4: Business As Usual

This year, we expect that the RIPE NCC's pool of unallocated IPv4 addresses will reach the "last /8", meaning that we have 16,777,216 IPv4 addresses left in the available pool. At that point it will no longer be possible for RIPE NCC members to obtain the amount of IPv4 addresses they will require to expand their current and future networks. When we hit the last /8, the RIPE NCC will only be able to distribute IPv6 addresses and a one-off allocation of IPv4 address space... Has this caused a last minute rush? more

ARIN Launches WHOWAS: Trial Service Providing Historical Information for a Given IP Address

American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is running a trial service that gives users access to historical IP whois data – that is, it will tell you who was responsible for an IP address or block of IPs. The service is not automated and if you want to access it you will need to submit a request via email with information about not only what you want to know, but why you are interested in accessing the information. more

Internet: Government Dominance or Governance?

In an age where the world has gone global in many forms and guises, the political attention is more and more focussed on national, populist issues, that arise from fear for the unknown. I can't deny it: the future undoubtedly contains many uncertainties. This usually comes with a general public that's afraid and in fear of things they cannot oversee. Thus it is easily aroused by a populist leader who feeds on this fear and throws flammable material on the already smouldering fire. In a time where leadership is called for, it seems lacking. The Internet governance discussion demands visionary leadership on a cross border level and it needs it soon. more