World IPv6 Day

Wednesday, June 8th, is World IPv6 Day. This is a day many major internet companies have decided jointly run a test on the future of the internet. The test is running Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), instead of the existing standard of IPv4, to see if anything breaks. Google estimates very few people will have any issues, guesstimating about 1 in 2000 people. Google has set up a Test Site so people can see if they are ready in advance. Google also published World IPv6 Day begins 24 hours from now. Websites, start your engines. with more information.

IPv6 is necessary because we are running out of IPv4 addresses. If you aren’t familiar with IP addresses, you can think of them as phone numbers for everything that connects to the internet. If IPv4 is our existing 10 digit number, IPv6 would be like having a 12 digit number, which greatly increases the options for phone numbers. Since we’re using more devices to connect to the internet we need to have more number options.