Could the Web Run Out of Addresses By 2010?

If businesses, governments, and education institutions don't upgrade to a newer IP address standard relatively soon, we could experience an unnerving scenario: the world running out of Internet addresses.

The report, released by the European Commission, states that only 17% of 610 institutions surveyed have upgraded from the IPv4 protocol to IPv6. Without this upgrade, the Internet can only support between 4 and 4.5 billion IP addresses, the unique string of numbers associated with every website in existence. According to The Telegraph, the web will be close to the critical point by the end of 2010.

For those who may not be familiar with the structure of the web: every website is assigned a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address, usually a string of numbers such as The "" you usually see is meant to make it easier to find your favorite websites. Currently, we use two version of the IP - IPv4 (the original version) and IPv6 (developed in the mid-1990s). IPv6, with its 128-bit web addresses, can support far more IP addresses than the 32-bit IPv4 protocol. Thus, if we don't all upgrade to IPv6, we will run out of Internet addresses.

While this entire scenario sounds potentially cataclysmic, we don't think you should be panicking yet. This problem isn't new - experts saw this coming years and years ago - and is already being addressed. As we get closer and closer to the critical point, more and more businesses, organizations, and individuals will upgrade their equipment for the IPv6 protocol.

Don't go unpacking your emergency Y2K kit just yet. Just be prepared for one giant, rolling upgrade to the Internet.