Internet Leaders Gear Up for World IPv6 Day

It’s officially here. The internet’s now going to have a new address. Tonight when the clock strikes 12, some of world’s best known, largely used websites including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Bing, will switch over to internet’s newest address – IPv6, albeit for a day. But, a change is in the waiting. What began as a way of identifying individual connections to a computer network in the early 1980s, today boasts of a roster of about 4.3bn addresses roughly. 

The D-day!

The global tech space is at the moment brimming with newer devices that keep pouring in. There are more than 80 million devices waiting in queue to be assigned an address. The older IPv4 addresses have been outrun by these increasing numbers, and hence this change seems to be the logical next step. Today, on World IPv6 Day, internet companies will indulge in this test, nicknamed a technical exercise to try their hands on their new address. As mentioned earlier, this change is inevitable. However, for those who haven’t switched yet, the change of address shouldn’t worry you as much now.

But, users are now expected to move forward bearing in mind the switch-over. For those who’ve gotten enterprising and have jumped on to the IPv6 bandwagon, the regular URLs should be accessible, anyways. ISPs everywhere, too will have to gear up to this impending change, and get in new routers that would support the new addresses. Companies worldwide, especially Tata Communications, one of world’s largest Tier 1 transit providers are highly optimistic of the change. Yves Poppe, Director of Business Development for IP Strategy, Tata Communications expects the change to be ‘smoother than expected’.

If you're enthusiastic, too about the IPv6 wave that's sweeping in, you could check your IPv6 connectivity, here. We’re living amidst interesting times, as technology progresses and goes mobile, the need for a larger roster would become imminent. Here’s hoping for smoother times!!