IPv4 addresses will run out in the coming weeks.

In just a few weeks, internet service providers will run out of available IP addresses. After that, the transition to the new version of the IP protocol—IPv6—is expected to begin.

Vint Cerf stated that the number of IP addresses will be exhausted when the 4.3 billionth IP address is issued. He was the inventor of the IPv4 internet protocol in 1977, which is approaching the end of its life. The new IPv6 version will make it possible to create trillions of IP addresses.

Currently, a node's network address, constructed using the IP protocol, is written as four decimal numbers (from 0 to 255) separated by periods, for example, 192.168.0.1. The main advantage of the IPv6 protocol is the address length of 128 bits instead of 32. This feature was the reason for the transition, as the number of addresses in the case of IPv6 will be significantly larger, which will expand the address space and solve the problem of address shortage.

In IPv6, an IP address is separated by colons and might look something like this: fe80:0:0:0:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf.

IPv6 was approved as the next protocol in the development of the internet back in the mid-1990s. Group-IB CEO Ilya Sachkov stated that modern operating systems and network devices already support IPv6, so most users won't even notice the transition. And no additional internet configuration will be required.

The transition will allow providers to provide unique network addresses, since currently many users are located behind a single IP address, using NAT technology (a mechanism in TCP/IP networks that allows for the translation of IP addresses of transit packets).