[TheNewt]

Forewarning: Don't discuss/post if you don't know about this, but if you want to look it up I think its called IPv6 or something.

Anyone who does know, please discuss the whole IP addressing changing. I know a few routers and some cards now support the new IP address, and from my understanding they are ditchin the #.#.# and changing to #:#:# but each # wont be 1-255 and instead will be 1-65536?

Me thinks this change will take a few years till it is standard.

[el hippo]

IPv6 was supposedly devised to solve numerous problems with the current tcp/ip implementation (IPv4). The new standard allows for new things such as better multicasting, security, addressing, etc.

Bottom line is that it was devised to address the fact that there are so many computers out there that they are running out of IP addresses. The new IPv6 protocol has a very large addressing range (8 blocks, each consisting of 16 bit numbers, for a total of 128bits) which should fix the running out of addresses problem.

I haven't had time to look at IPv6 rfcs so I don't know everything about IPv6. My main interest is in IPv4 low level packet construction (as in writing my own tcp/ip stack). I am currently designing a network attacking tool that takes down a network after automatically learning about it's topology (for educational purposes of course). The device is tiny (3x3 inch square) and runs on custom hardware and software (it doesn't run a conventional OS).

Hippo

[TheNewt]

Mmm I think its interesting that they are going to switch, and I wonder how long before it becomes common knowledge to use IPv6.