MIAMI (AFP) – The global warehouse for Internet addresses has run empty.
The non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) doled out its last five batches of "IP" numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic.
"A pool of more than four billion Internet addresses has been emptied this morning," ICANN chief Rod Beckstrom said at a Miami press conference.
"It is completely depleted. There are no more."
He brushed aside fears of modern life being devastated by an "IPocalypse," saying Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) worldwide will be doling out remaining addresses to support a shift to a bountiful new "IPv6" format.
"It is like running out of license plates," said Internet Architecture Board chairman Olaf Kolkman. "Driving on the road the next day would not change."
The touted solution to the problem is a switch to an "IPv6" format which allows trillions of Internet addresses, while the current IPv4 standard provides a meager four billion or so.
OK, WHO hired Olaf Holkman? There is no Internet, there is no big office in the sky that runs it all. So, who started a non-profit and started handing out IP addresses, SOMEONE had to start this whole thing, I have never known WHO, or HOW. I have always wanted to see a big golden building in the sky that houses THE INTERNET, where all of this is done. WHO has the first IP and how did he get it? So many questions ............... WHO and WHAT is the Architecture Board? How did it happen to end up in Miami?
