IPv4

Internet Protocol version 4, IPv4, is the current standard used as the protocol to communicate over the Internet, and on the majority of local area networks.

Due to the limit of IPv4 addresses, it will be superseded by IPv6. This change over has long been spoken about, but will require large scale reconfiguration, and so has been put off. Current estimates show that the IPv4 address space will be entirely used by 2011.

To increase the lifespan of IPv4, Network Address Translation (NAT), and Port Address Translation (PAT) were developed, allowing a single external IPv4 address to represent an entire network.

Last updated on 23 October 2008, at 23:14.