The web is booming, more and more people are online and more websites are popping up than ever. In fact, the number of websites and computers connected to the Internet is becoming so great, that we're running out of IP addresses to assign them. This shortage can be avoided by switching from the old and widely used IPv4 protocol to the new IPv6, which, among other improvements, enables the use of a huge number of new addresses. The problem is that, while the number of IPv4 addresses will run out by the end of next year, most organizations aren't ready to make the switch yet, as a new study by the European Commission has found.

The older IPv4 is in wide use today and it is the most popular networking protocol by a fair margin. However, it is getting a little long in the tooth and, at the time it was designed, no one expected the Internet to grow at this pace. The IPv4 protocol uses a 32-bit address, something along the lines of 192.168.0.1, and this combination of numbers yields about 4.3 billion addresses, a figure we're rapidly approaching with the addresses already assigned.

The new IPv6 protocol uses 128-bit addresses, which results in a number of possible combinations several orders of magnitude higher than IPv4. The fact that addresses were running out has been known for a while and there has been a great push to move everyone over to the new protocol. Most companies and organizations, though, have been reluctant, in fact, of the 610 companies, government and educational organizations questioned in the EC survey, only 17 percent were ready to make the switch.

There are still addresses left to last until the end of next year, but, at the rate companies are switching, most won't be ready by that time. One of the reasons why most are putting off the upgrade is that some networking components, especially older ones, don't support IPv6 and will have to be upgraded as well, a significant cost for larger companies. Still, as that point gets closer, more and more will start using IPv6 and it's likely that there will be a very public debate encouraging the companies to upgrade.