The Managing Director of UK business ISP Fluidata, Piers Daniell, has warned that one of the biggest human challenges of adapting to work with the new generation of IPv6 internet addresses is, at least during training, simply being able to remember them.

A standard IPv4 address is seamlessly assigned to your computer each time you go online (e.g. 46.247.0.11) and acts kind of like a phone number for your internet link, allowing you to communicate with other systems and servers. Numbers like that aren't too difficult to remember but just try holding the IPv6 alternative up in your head: 2a00:0f18:0006:0000:0000:0001:0000:0102.


Daniell warns that "most IT Managers" can expect to face difficulties like this over the coming years, although it's not limited to them. A literate IT person will also be mindful of IP addresses and the harder they are to remember the longer it will take to do what you want (e.g. diagnosing problems in your home network or server setup).

Sadly there is little choice but to adapt. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated its remaining blocks of IPv4 internet addresses to the worlds five RIR's in February 2011 and one of those, APNIC, has effectively already run out (here). The remaining RIR's will soon follow.