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Apple iPad Pushing Us Closer to Internet Armageddon

11 points by lmacvittie 16y ago

tedunangst 16y ago
I thought we were going to run out of IPv4 space last year. Or was that 2008? 2007? In other news, f5 has some sweet new IPv6 enabled routers to replace all that obsolete IPv4 stuff you're still running.
wwortiz 16y ago
I wish I could use ipv6 but my ISP doesn't really have the same feelings.
swombat 16y ago
Dump the IPv6 standard and release a new standard which is actually backwards-compatible with IPv4, and perhaps we have a chance to avert this. IPv6 has been failing to gain adoption for over 10 years now. I recall there was a detailed article on HN a while ago explaining why IPv6 is never gonna work, because it's not backwards-compatible with IPv4 (i.e. IPv6 devices can't access IPv4 devices, and vice versa).
Groxx 16y ago
IPv4 to IPv6 and vise versa is doable. It's called a NAT. Any DNS request can be translated, thus any internet access by hostname won't see a difference. Any non-hostname access can be handled statically by the OS or your router. If you're accessing by IP address you're kinda shooting your future-self in the foot anyway, it's just not good if you can't modify it for the future. Even if the entire Internet were to switch to IPv6, there are ways to make the switch transparent to end-users. Granted, it's not foolproof, but you can't have an isomorphic projection between the two: one has a larger area of data it can address. There cannot be an IPv6 which is 100% backwards compatible with IPv4, because translation must occur at some level. Why not put the burden on the late-adopters who are dragging things down anyway? Switch, or be left to kludge something together when everyone else has. It's essentially the mantra of digital tech. How many people support Windows 98 still? That's only been a little over 10 years. This armageddon sounds like Y2K to me. Better start stocking up on the Spam and beans.
viraptor 16y ago
The "iPad problem" is actually quite easy to solve. No 3G provider I know promises a public ip (even though most of them provide it now afaik). If they start running low on addresses, you'll find your mobile device natted instead. That will also mean VoIP problems... a lot of them.

11 points by lmacvittie 16y ago

I thought we were going to run out of IPv4 space last year. Or was that 2008? 2007? In other news, f5 has some sweet new IPv6 enabled routers to replace all that obsolete IPv4 stuff you're still running.

wwortiz 16y ago

I wish I could use ipv6 but my ISP doesn't really have the same feelings.

swombat 16y ago

Dump the IPv6 standard and release a new standard which is actually backwards-compatible with IPv4, and perhaps we have a chance to avert this. IPv6 has been failing to gain adoption for over 10 years now. I recall there was a detailed article on HN a while ago explaining why IPv6 is never gonna work, because it's not backwards-compatible with IPv4 (i.e. IPv6 devices can't access IPv4 devices, and vice versa).

Groxx 16y ago

IPv4 to IPv6 and vise versa is doable. It's called a NAT. Any DNS request can be translated, thus any internet access by hostname won't see a difference. Any non-hostname access can be handled statically by the OS or your router. If you're accessing by IP address you're kinda shooting your future-self in the foot anyway, it's just not good if you can't modify it for the future. Even if the entire Internet were to switch to IPv6, there are ways to make the switch transparent to end-users. Granted, it's not foolproof, but you can't have an isomorphic projection between the two: one has a larger area of data it can address. There cannot be an IPv6 which is 100% backwards compatible with IPv4, because translation must occur at some level. Why not put the burden on the late-adopters who are dragging things down anyway? Switch, or be left to kludge something together when everyone else has. It's essentially the mantra of digital tech. How many people support Windows 98 still? That's only been a little over 10 years. This armageddon sounds like Y2K to me. Better start stocking up on the Spam and beans.

viraptor 16y ago

The "iPad problem" is actually quite easy to solve. No 3G provider I know promises a public ip (even though most of them provide it now afaik). If they start running low on addresses, you'll find your mobile device natted instead. That will also mean VoIP problems... a lot of them.