Google, Yahoo, Facebook Mark World IPv6 Day

Many experts predict that internet is fast running out of addresses. Every device connected to internet has a unique address called its IP (Internet Protocol) address. The current standard for IP addresses is IPv4. IPv4 has about 4.3 billion addresses. But, they will fall short of the growing need of web in few years’ time.

To address this problem Internet Society in association with some of the major websites is marking 8th June as The World IPv6 Day. On this day more than 400 websites including Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Bing will enable IPv6 on their websites. We believe this is an important milestone, as IPv6 is the only long-term solution to IPv4 address exhaustion, and its deployment is crucial to the continued growth of the open Internet, Google said an official blog post.

IPv6 will solve the problem of shortage of IP addresses. But, the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is not smooth. IPv4 and IPv6 networks are not compatible with each other. Also, internet service providers and websites will have to upgrade their hardware to support IPv6. IPv6 has been around since 1996, but still it’s a long way before it becomes universal.

The aim of World IPv6 day is to create awareness and further the goal of universal deployment of IPv6. “The goal of the Test Flight Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out”, says Internet Society on its website.