Whatever happened to the whole "the internet will collapse on itself" thing?

cosmonutcosmonut
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Back when I was in my later years of high school (about 6 or 7 years ago), the internet was REALLY starting to expand. At the time, I remember lots of computer people were predicting a grim future for our favorite stomping grounds.



"The internet is getting so large that it will collapse itself."

"The internet can't support how fast it's growing."



Stuff like that was said all the time. Where did all those thoughts go? Did I.T. people just figure out a way to make IP addressing work without problems?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    IP addressing is still a very real problem and we should still expect to hit a "wall" in the not-too-distant future, IIRC.



    I believe Internet2 is testing a new version of IP that should allow a LOT more addressable spaces. It's been a while since I read about it, though. Anyone care to dig up a link?



    [ 01-28-2003: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 5
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    IP V6 is that new protocol, which allows for an ungodly amount of addresses. I don't see the internet collapsing soon, technology gets better and faster, that won't stop for a long time.



    Or may be it is collapsing, my school's link to internet2 seems to be horrible
  • Reply 3 of 5
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    how could people think 222 billion wouldn've be enough <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
  • Reply 4 of 5
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    [quote]Originally posted by ast3r3x:

    <strong>how could people think 222 billion wouldn've be enough</strong><hr></blockquote>Where'd you get this 222 Billion? In the ultimate optimized IP network, there is a maximum of only 254^4 or 4.16 Billion addresses. When you start adding subnets, this number plummets very rapidly.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    agent69agent69 Posts: 88member
    According to NetBSD's IPv6 FAQ page:



    "IPv4 uses only 2^32 bits for IP address space, which allows only 4 billion nodes to be identified on the Internet. 4 billion may look like a large number; however, it is less than the human population on the earth! IPv6 allows 2^128 bits for IP address space, allowing 340282366920938463463374607431768211456 (three hundred forty undecillion) nodes to be uniquely identified on the Internet. "



    Agent69
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