IPv6

Originally Posted by Richard M

Hmm.. did some research into the number of addresses and came up with this:
IPv4
Over 109 (42 billion)
IPv6
Over 1038 (3.40E38개 ) = 43 billion * 43 billion * 43 billion * 43 billion
http://www.ngix.ne.kr/eng/info/info_overview.jsp

I can't see a future where we have more than 42 billion computers which need a public IP address.

In theory you can have 4 Billion IPv4 Addresses (not 42 Billion). In practice there are a lot less available.

The 224.x.x.x to 239.x.x.x range is not available as its the multicast range. Also many of the early "Class A" blocks (1.x.x.x , 2.x.x.x etc) belong to individual companies who only actually use a fraction of them.

In many instances, when you get allocated an IP in a data centre for your server, you actually get a block of 4 or 8 - and few people make use of all of them, so many remain unused.

[Stu038]

Originally Posted by Richard M

One for calls and one for internet stuff.

Yes.... but why one for each, why can't the same one be used for both in a similar way to the way that PC's do?