Adapted from Fox News

Web companies including Google, Facebook and Akamai are joining forces on Wednesday to test the Internets readiness for a future in which billions more people and devices will be connected.

The pool of IPv4 Internet addresses used for most traffic today is near exhaustion.  But adopting IPv6 -- a new Internet protocol with 4 billion times as many addresses -- has been slow despite the fact that it is more than a decade old.

Publishers and Internet service providers have been waiting for the other to make the first move, and workarounds including translation services and address-sharing have become common.

But the prospect of large numbers of modern IPv6 networks coming online -- especially in the developing world where systems based on the previous protocol, IPv4, are not widespread -- is beginning to push organisations into action.

"What's at stake is the future scalability and utility of the Internet," says Matthew Ford, technology program manager of the Internet Society, a non-profit group dedicated to the open development of the Internet, which is organizing World IPv6 Day.

"IPv6 is fundamentally about allowing the Internet to scale to meet the expectations and demands of a global population of 7 billion, coupled with increased expectations of how many devices are expected to be able to connect to the Internet," he says.

IPv4's specifications were drawn up in 1981, when the population of the world was 4.5 billion and the personal computer age was just dawning with the launch of the IBM PC. It allowed for 4.3 billion IP addresses.

Today, more than 2 billion people are online, many with multiple computers and smartphones. By 2020, 50 billion devices may be connected as smart meters, connected TVs and remote health management proliferate.

What does this mean for you?  Right now nothing. Even when IPV6 is the standard there might not be much to do, but we will see.

If you have any system questions or concerns on IPv6, contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800-672-4806 or email us

-Bryan