Internet Running Out Of Web Addresses

SAN JOSE (KCBS) – Believe it or not, the last of the numbers used to assign Internet addresses are being doled out this week.

But the engineers who assign numbers to web addresses are not worried, even though those numbers, all 4.3 billion of them, are almost gone.

"Yes we're running out. But we also have already designed the replacement," said John Curran, CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers. "It's already running in your computers and now it's time to turn it on."

KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:

Curran said consumers don't have to do anything to turn it on, but companies will have to talk to their Internet providers to make sure they're ready for the new system of web addresses, known as IPv6.

"If you don't, will it still work? Yeah, it will," said Curran. "But it may not run as smoothly."

A group known as the Internet Society plans to test the new protocol this June, when major websites like Google will turn on IPv6 for one day to see if there are any problems with the new system.

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