QUOTE(guy @ Oct 30 2005, 09:28 AM)
Wouldn't it be easier if we all had a single state IP instead of this dynamic system?
Yes it would. But there is a reason why this isn't the case: there aren't enough addresses! The version four of the IP protocol is the one that's commonly used now. IPv4 supports 32-bit addresses, meaning that there can some 4 billion different addresses. And as you know, more and more computers and other appliances (especially cell phones) are getting connected Internet is getting more and more popular in the population rich asian countries. When Internet originated, the number of connected computers were hugely underestimated. Other problem is that the addresses aren't equally distributed. As Internet originated in the USA, US companies get to reserve address ranges first. You could say that USA is hogging IPv4 addresses.
But there is a cure for this: the IPv6. Yes, that's not typo, they decided to skip the version 5. IPv6 has 128-bit addressing, which means some 3.4 × 10^38 addresses. I remember hearing that the number of addresses are enough to have several addresses for each atom of every human being alive. Yep, they screwed up with the IPv4 addresses and with Ipv6 they go to overkill

One lecturer said that once the intellectual clothing becomes popular they're probably going to assign each button a couple of IPv6 addresses...
Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)