Subject: Re: Future of TCP/IP?
To: Jeffrey Wheat <jeff@tad.cetlink.net>
From: Erik E. Fair <fair@cesium.clock.org>
List: current-users
Date: 12/21/1995 10:07:13
There are addresses available in all three of the old address classes.
However, the InterNIC and the other registries are being extremely
particular about handing out A's and B's to anyone who isn't going to fill
'em up in the mostly short term.

The long term answer is that we're all speaking IP version 4 now, and
version 6 is in development. Version 6 has 128 bit addresses. That about
twice as large as I think we need, but I guess the folks figured that if we
simply double the number of bits, we might run out again later, so they
quadrupled it. There are interoperating implementations of IPv6 for a
variety of platforms, including NetBSD I believe. Deployment will probably
begin in earnest about a year from now, assuming that we all can convince
the ISPs that this is serious.

Erik Fair
Internet Architect
Apple Computer, Inc.