It happened four years ago. And again two years ago. And last year. But this time, on November 25, 2019, we have finally, finally, finally run out of IPv4 addresses.
That’s according to RIPE, Europe’s regional internet registry, which announced on Monday “we made our final /22 IPv4 allocation from the last remaining addresses in our available pool. We have now run out of IPv4 addresses.”
That’s not to be confused with the time in April 2018 when RIPE announced it had allocated its last /8 block. Or six years earlier than that when RIPE said it has run out of IPv4 addresses. Because this time, it really has run out. No more IPv4 addresses ever.
Well, except for those that it “will continue to recover… from organizations that have gone out of business or are closed, or from networks that return addresses they no longer need.” There is a waiting list for that however.
What the hell is going on? Do we have IPv4 addresses or not?
Well, yes and no. We are all using them as we speak. And engineers will continue to figure out ways of making what we have work for them. And blocks continue to crop up when old businesses die and sell them off. And then there’s the growing grey market in IPv4 sales.
Robin Edgar
Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft