Possibility of matching ip

[ase]

Just a question off the top of my head.

Okay, so if the net assigns an IP address to every computer on the internet, wouldn't we run out of ip's to assign?

if you take the max values 255.255.255.255
this gives you at total of 4,228,250,625 (4.2 billion) combinations.

The total world populaton is at 6 billion.
Would this mean then that if the whole world was online at the same time, roughly 2 billon duplicate ip's would occur?
what prevents this?

[Ad Bot]

[Daedalus]

Woah thar.
You have a point.

[Kalphiter]

256*256, considering you can use 0.

1. The net doesn't assign you an IP, your ISP does. Your ISP buys a pool of IPs (67.67.*.*)
2. Dynamic IP addresses. When you log off, your ISP will give your IP to someone else and you will receive a new one when you log back on to the internet.

[Sandvich]

Don't mind me, I'm an idiot.

[Kalphiter]

Both my computers had the same ip once.
had to set my protocols or w/ to auto find or something

We're talking about external IPs, not LAN IPs.

[Sandvich]

We're talking about external IPs, not LAN IPs.

Ooh

[Otis Da HousKat]

A lot of the world doesn't even have private internet access so it's not a huge issue.

[ase]

256*256, considering you can use 0.

1. The net doesn't assign you an IP, your ISP does. Your ISP buys a pool of IPs (67.67.*.*)
2. Dynamic IP addresses. When you log off, your ISP will give your IP to someone else and you will receive a new one when you log back on to the internet.

1. true, slipped my mind.
2. if this is true, then we would run out of ip's if 6 billion people simultaneously set up internet connections, so therefore, we have limited internet connections?

A lot of the world doesn't even have private internet access so it's not a huge issue.

This is true, but this is a what if scenario.

[Kalphiter]

2. if this is true, then we would run out of ip's if 6 billion people simultaneously set up internet connections, so therefore, we have limited internet connections?

IPv6

[ase]

just found a wikipedia article on the subject....

IPv6

true.