ARIN Urges IPv6 Upgrades

May 25, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The American Registry for Internet Numbers (arin.net), the non-profit organization involved in distributing IP addresses issued a press release highlighting an announcement it made earlier this month urging the Internet community to migrate to IP version 6, calling the move "necessary to allow continued growth of the Internet."

The group says that the currently prevalent IP version 4 is being consumed at a rate that can not keep pace with the Internet's growth. IPv4, says ARIN, contains just over 4 billion unique IP addresses, not enough to last indefinitely. IPv6, designed to replace version 4, enables many more IP addresses, along with enhanced security features.

While ARIN had, up to this point, performed technical coordination of both versions and had not endorsed one over the other, the group says that only 19 percent of IPv4 addresses remain. The group advises that migration to IPv6 is necessary for any application that requires the availability of contiguous IP resources.

"We must prepare for IPv4's depletion, and ARIN's resolution to encourage that migration to IPv6 may be the impetus for more organizations to start the planning process," says John Curran, chairman of ARIN's board of trustees.