Unless you"ve been living under a rock, you no doubt know by now that Microsoft is currently working toward releasing the next version of the Windows operating system, Windows Vista. As you would probably expect, Windows Vista will be loaded with new features. One thing that caught me by surprise though was that Microsoft has made some major changes to the way that TCP/IP is implemented.
About ten years ago, I remember listening to an instructor in an MCSE class explaining that the world was about to run out of IP addresses. He went on to explain that soon there would be no choice but to adopt a different addressing scheme. The process, he explained, would be painful because having everyone switch to a different addressing scheme would be comparable to having everyone in the world simultaneously change phone numbers. Since that time, I have heard a few other people express similar concerns. At the time, making a switch to the IP Version 6 (IPv6) was touted as a solution to the problem. What actually ended up happening though was that the world adopted NAT as a method for conserving IP addresses.