IP Addressing

An IP address is a unique address (such as 147.132.42.18) that certain electronic devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP) – in simpler terms, a computer address. The IP address acts as a locator for one IP device to find another and interact with it. On the public Internet (as opposed to private internets or intranets), IP addresses are managed and created by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The IANA generally allocates super-blocks to Regional Internet Registries, who in turn allocate smaller blocks to Internet service providers and enterprises. Read the full background at IP Addressing Wikipedia

IP Addressing / Recently Commented

The Year IPv6 Made it to Major League

May 6th 2007: ARIN board of trustees passes a resolution advising the Internet community that migration to a new version of the internet protocol, IPv6, will be necessary to allow continued growth of the internet. June 29th 2007, Puerto Rico: ICANN Board resolution states that: The Board further resolves to work with the Regional Internet Registries and other stakeholders to promote education and outreach, with the goal of supporting the future growth of the Internet by encouraging the timely deployment of IPv6. Oct 26th 2007 at the RIPE 55 meeting in Amsterdam... Nov 15th 2007: IGF meeting, Rio de Janeiro... This is but a small sample of the fast growing visibility IPv6 acquired this year, 2007. more»

ARIN Statement on the Future of Addressing Policy

ARIN has just released a statement on the future of addressing policy. Specifically addressing the future of IPv4 addressing. What ARIN does is to emphasize the current policies and say they will be enforced even stronger than today if needed. I.e. there is no announcement of a change in policy. more»

ARIN Calls for Faster Migration to IPv6

InformationWeek reports that the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has called for a faster migration to the new Internet Protocol, IPv6. "We must prepare for IPv4's depletion, and ARIN's resolution to encourage that migration to IPv6 may be the impetus for more organizations to start the planning process," said John Curran, chairman of ARIN's Board of Trustees, in a statement. more»

Ready or Not… Here Come the IRC-Controlled SIP/VoIP Attack Bots and Botnets!

A story... ZZZ Telemarketing (not a real name) is locked in a heated fight with their bitter rival, YYY Telemarketing (also not a real name), to win a very large lead generation contract with Customer X. Customer X has decided to run a test pitting the two companies against each other for a week to see who can generate the most leads. The ZZZ CEO has said to his staff that it is "do or die" for the company. If they fail to win the contract, they will have to shut down -- they need to do "whatever it takes" to win over YYY. A ZZZ staffer discovers that part of why YYY has consistently underbid them is because they are using SIP trunks to reduce their PSTN connection costs. But the staffer also discovers that YYY is using very cheap voice service providers who run over the public Internet with no security... more»

More on Difficulties Transitioning to IPv6

Transitioning to a next-generation Internet could be akin to changing the engines on a moving airplane.

Routers and other networking devices will likely need replacing; personal computers could be in store for software upgrades. Headaches could arise given the fact that it won't be possible to simply shut down the entire network for maintenance, with companies, groups and individuals depending on it every day. more»

Spamhaus Policy Block List Update

Recently, I wrote about the Spamhaus Policy Block List (PBL), suggesting senders encourage their network/connectivity service providers (whomever they lease or purchase IP addresses from) to list their illegitimate email-sending IPs as a step towards improving the overall email stream on the internet. The initial PBL was seeded with listings from the Dynablock NJABL ("Not Just Another Bogus List"), which at the time of the cut-over was at more than 1.9 million entries... more»

IP Address Confusion Results in Wrong Family Raiding

...IP addresses are not consistently reliable means of identifying users. Law enforcement officials and a family in Gretna, Virginia and learned that lesson the hard way after their home was searched by a law enforcement team that included Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal, according to a law enforcement official. more»

IANA Up For Grabs?

The US government wants to hear from organizations interested in running some of the internet's key resources, including the master lists of IP address space and domain names.

The Department of Commerce last week published a request for information, a step before potentially putting a contract out to bidding, soliciting interest from anybody interested in taking over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. more»

Industry Updates

LACNIC Announces Timeline for IPv6 Adoption in Latin America and Carribean Region

As a response to the forecasts prepared by several investigators indicating that by the year 2011 the central pool of version 4 (IPv4) Internet addresses could be completely depleted, LACNIC announces it is launching a regional campaign so that all the region's networks will be adapted to the new version 6 of the protocol (IPv6) before January 1st, 2011. 185 weeks, and counting... ›››