Quote:
Originally Posted by Slacker
IPv4 is a set of binary numbers. There is only 256 numbers per each octet on the IP address (From 0 -255). With the fast growth of devices reaching the internet, you will run out of addresses rather quick.
IPv6 uses hexadecimal numbers instead of binary. You will have digits from 0 to 9 and then from A to F. You will have bigger numbers right from the start.
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That's not correct. It's got nothing to do with hexadecimal or binary number systems. IP addresses are not numbers, they are bit patterns. That's why we can do neat things like subnet masking, which is achieved with simple boolean operations on the individual bits.
An IPv4 address is 4 groupings of 8 bits worth of binary data.
An IPv6 address is 16 groupings of 16 bits worth of binary data.
You can represent address data in any number system you want:
For example, 255.255.255.0 can be written as:
255.255.255.0
ff.ff.ff.0
11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000
Obviously, we choose to use the decimal numbers out of convenience and convention, but to a computer, they are all the same - a 32 bit wide bit pattern (it's a bit pattern, not a number, since we don't do math on IP addresses)
A 32 bit wide bit pattern can be 4,294,967,295 possible unique values
A 256 bit wide bit pattern, which is what IPv6 uses, can be 3.4 x 10e38 possible unique values.