June 8th, 2011 is World
IPv6 Day (pronounced eye-pea-vee-six) and Hallmark has got a big, big,
opportunity.
This is even bigger
than Casimir Pulaski Day, Doris Day, or even Otis Day because it's a
World Day. Hallmark could make cards for every written
language in the world. So let me tell you why IPv6 gets a World Day.
Everything in the world
that uses the internet has it's own address and
the internet uses a special protocol to find it. It is
called an Internet Protocol Address, IP Address or IP (eye-pea) for
short. The current version is IP version 4 or IPv4. June
8th, 2011 is the day Google, Yahoo! Facebook, Akamai, and
Limelight Networks are going to give IP version 6 a try.
The reason there is an IPv6
is that we ran out of addresses using IPv4. The very last addresses
available under IPv4 were given out on February 3rd this year.
4,294,967,296 addresses in all have been given out. That's pronounced 4
billion, 294 million, 967 thousand two hundred and ninety-six.
With IPv6 there are
340,282,366,920,938,463,374,607,431,768,456 of them. Thats pronounced 340
undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion,
463 sextillion, 463 quintillion, 374 quadrillion, 607 trillion, 431
billion, 768 million, 211 thousand, four hundred and fifty-six. I think
anything that big you just call it Oprah and get over it.
The addresses look
different, and behave different, and that's why there are so many more. An
IP version 4 address looks like this; 129.162.100.250. An IP version 6
address looks like this; 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.
IPv6 has 8 segments
separated by colons and IPv4 has 4 segments separated by dots. It also has
4 places between colons where IPv4 has 3 between it's dots. To top it all
off IPv6 uses letters and numbers instead of just numbers giving each
position more possible values. Zero through nine is ten digits. Zero
through F (pronounced effuh) is sixteen digits.
Under IPv6 every device
from smartie phone to computer will have it's own address. With IPv4 they
shared. The idea has always been to give everything it's own address, but
the handwriting was on the wall so the brainiacs came up with ways to
share addressess and postpone running out.
If you
have Internet Cable at home you get one IP address assigned to
your house. That is the IP address the public sees. Brilliantly enough the
IP address the public sees is called a Public IP Address. Inside the house
your IP addresses are private, and yes, they are called Private IP
Addresses.
So Pat, your Private IP is
192.168.0.3 and the Significant Other's is 192.168.0.5 and Timmy is
192.168.0.6 and Bonnie is 192.168.0.9 and Spot is 192.168.0.22 and you
all have smartie phones and iPads and God knows what else. Maybe 15 IP
addresses all told. But the public only sees you as the one Public IP
Address that Cable gives your house.
As a matter of fact, it's
very likely all your neighbors use Private IP Addresses in the range of
192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.254 too. All of those same-same IP addresses
on their home networks get translated into the one Public IP Address
assigned to their homes by the cable company.
Network Address Translation
(NAT) does this. NAT lives inside all that gear the cable company installed
in your house with all those cables and stuff. NAT protects your identity
when you go surfing the web, and NAT answers the internet door to your
house and sends the caller to your privtate address. As long as
you go to the right house, you get the right Timmy. But NAT's number is up.
NAT is going away for life when IPv6 takes over, because nobody is
going to share anymore.
Without NAT we won't need
all that gear to network. We can acually put a group of strangers on a
firetruck on a boat headed to Cabo and get them networked with
nothing more than smartie phones and Tropic Tan 12.
You can search to the end
of the internet and read everything along the way and still not know how
IPv6 works, maybe the people writing the articles don't know how it
works. Reading RFC 1884 will help, but you may find it a long hard
read, or you can read the next paragraph and be able to explain it
over cocktails.
IPv6 uses its big giant
numbering system to send three types of messages. It calls them Unicast,
Anycast and Multicast. Unicast is when you tell one person you are having a
party and they're invited. Anycast is when you say it a little too loud and
some people overhear and invite themselves. Multicast is when you stand on
a table, clear your throat, and invite eveyone in the bar. There it is.*
Internet Protocol Version
Six, IPv6, is also called Internet Protocol Next Generation, IPng
(pronounced eye-pea-ing). Somehow I don't think Hallmark is gonna use that.
Send a Hallmark
Card for World IPv6 Day, or not, go IPng, or not, that's your
call, and that's Cocktail Talk.
