Quote:
Originally Posted by sam-vm
Hi... and thanks to all who have chipped in with info... interesting stuff.
I wonder just how many IPv4 addresses are actually available to the likes of VM and how long they might actually last?
From that question I guess might spring a further question that is, "will there come a tipping point for companies like VM when they have little or no other choice than to actually start implementing IPv6 and how far off is that... months/years?"
Given that we all now seem to have multiple devices in the house all wanting access to our local networks and beyond, it would seem that the need for IPv6 is creping up on us ever faster?
Hopefully more companies like TP-Link will start including as standard, or making available via firmware updates, IPv6 capability in their products.
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I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to networking stuff, so take this with a pinch of salt. However, Virgin owns 5 large blocks, the IP's beginning 62, 80, 81, 82 and 213.
Source:
http://help.virginmedia.com/system/s...RTICLE_ID=2825
Each of those blocks has just over 16million usable IPs (16,777,214 I believe is the precise number), ranging from say 62.0.0.1 to 62.255.255.255. Now there are some lost in there, as you'd never give 62.0.0.1 to a customer and Virgin's own equipment will take up some, but 16million is a good place to start. Times that by 5 and you get roughly 80million IP addresses. That's a lot more than Virgin will ever need, even in the long term as there's just not that many people in the UK. So basically, Virgin won't run out any time soon and the move to IPv6 will be more about offering services and the ability to connect to non-IPv4 sites.
I believe they have so many IP's mostly due to the way Virgin was the culmination of various cable networks merging together over the years - NTL and Blueyonder, for example.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Qtx
They could do more NAT based tricks, have a IP4 to IP6 gateway/proxy site, or all sorts of things to put off doing. It should have been last year or the year before that IP6 was considered in relation to customers equipment. One would hope firmware updates to the superhub and future hubs could enable IP6 in the future...surely someone has considered all of these things when deciding on equipment. Considering how long customers have had the original VM modem, getting IP6 ready equipment out there now would be beneficial.
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Some routers have built in support for 6to4 (or 4to6) tunnelling, so realistically if anyone wanted IPv6 right now, they can.