Well, sort of.
Simply put, the Internet - in its current form - has run out of spaces. Every device - whether it's a phone, laptop, computer, whatever - has a unique IP address. It's a string of numbers, punctuated by dots, that allow you to connect the Internet.
Back when the Internet was created in 1983, Vint Cerf, one of the designers, came up with a protocol known as IPv4 which meant that a total of 6.3 BILLION addresses could be put on the Internet.
After all, it was 1983 and the likelihood they'd need that many was in the realms of science-fiction.
Sure enough, 32 years later and we've hit peak Internet. Many websites, however, have switched over to IPv6, which will mean that the Internet can continue to grow.
How many addresses can be put on IPv6? 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That's 340 trillion, trillion, trillion.
So, y'know, no need to worry for a good while longer.
Just last week, the American Registry of Internet Numbers officially declined a request for an IP address in IPv4.
ARIN, which has responsibility for doling out IP addresses under the old system, have been planning for this day for several years and have activated their 'end times protocol', meaning that all addresses from here on out must use the IPv6.
It's all a little technical and the truth is, none of it is likely to affect the average Internet user.
You can still browse as usual with no interruption whatsoever. It does, however, tell us just how far the Internet has come and how it's completely surpassed any possible expectation of what it could be originally.
We're going to lie down and think about that amount of numbers.
Via WP.com
