UK's 'Unallocated' IPv4 Block Actually In Use, Not For Sale 203
jimboh2k writes "The UK may have 16.9 million 'unused' IPv4 addresses but according to the department that owns them, they're not for sale. The Department of Work and Pensions says it would be too expensive to reallocate those addresses and, even if it did, it would not stave off IPv4 address exhaustion by much."
The addresses in question are being used for a new internal government network. Of course, why that project wasn't built using IPv6...
Re:Enlighten me please (Score:4, Interesting)
Is there some reason "enterprise" hardware comes with firmware that can't be upgraded?
Re:Enlighten me please (Score:4, Interesting)
Firmware sure but those asics that make networking kit fast not so much. A lot of the first gen stuff punted ipv6 stuff to the cpu fine if you just want the line item but worthless if you want to actually use it for production.
Re:Enlighten me please (Score:4, Interesting)
Ick -- WSAAsynGetHostByName? In this day and age, you have a window handle lying around?
I'm the Program Manager for WinSock at Microsoft. Have you looked at GetAddrInfoEx? In Windows 8/Server 2012, the DNS team added some Async features into it. Even better, it will properly handle IPv6 AND international domain names.
And if you're doing the new "Runtime" programming for Windows 8, we done our best to make sure that most network programs never have to deal with IP addresses at all -- that means that new new RT apps should be IPv6 ready out of the box.
(We also do the dual-stack thing with our sockets, so listener sockets just specify a port (or service) to listen on, and we automatically listen to both IPv6 and IPv4. We updates .NET 4.5 in the same way to make dual-stack be simpler.)
Links: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms738518(v=vs.85).asp [microsoft.com]
Re:Let the home office keep them (Score:4, Interesting)
> and not to be a testbed for new technologies
But IPV6 is not new technology. The RFC is 14 years old, and current computer operating systems already speak it. An 11 year old operating system, Windows XP, speaks it. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2478747 [microsoft.com]
The "install" is merely enabling what is already there.
> From their point of view, they are good for years to come so why change that.
But they aren't good for years to come. Once IPV6 comes out regularly, that horde of addresses will be worthless and they will be stuck with obsolete tech. No, wait, it's already obsolete.
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BMO
Re:Let the home office keep them (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh look, fear mongering from an AC.
Do you have a stack of IPV4 addresses for sale? Or perhaps you are an ISP manager wanting to continue raking in the bucks for all those static IPV4 leases?
>Anyone taking bets on how many bugs there'll be in the latest and greatest IPv6 stuff? And how many exploitable ones?
Did the bugs in BIND prevent people from using BIND? Did the bugs in BIND dissuade people from connecting to the net at all? No. And honestly, (here comes the analogy, but it's not a car analogy - deal with it) unless you do a sea trial, your boat sits in drydock and you don't know if it will sink or not. What is certain is that your boat is worthless in drydock.
Your post is just FUD.
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BMO