Since the late 1970s, Internet Protocol version 4 has been the standard address system for identifying and locating computers, routers, and other hardware on the Internet. But as of February, all . To fix the problem, a second protocol, IPv6, debuted a few years back, though adoption is not yet widespread.

IPv4 is the original network protocol, initially designed to connect university and government mainframes. Since the number of connected systems has skyrocketed from merely dozens back in the 1970s to billions today, the original protocol had to be reworked to handle more systems than the 4 billion it provided for. IPv6 can support 2128 addresses, or about 3.4x1038 (3,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) devices.

Now that IPv4 addresses are all assigned, the pressure on many organizations to move to IPv6 is growing steadily. Small companies might worry about what the switch will require--but fortunately for most people, it is a good ways off, and it even when it happens.

For most homes or small businesses, doesn't need to have a major impact. Basically the same NAT (network address translation) technology that lets many networks use a single IPv4 address for each office--no matter how many systems they have--will also allow a network to have an "outside" IPv6 address and continue to use the existing IPv4 addresses inside the firewall. The only required change in this case happens at the firewall or router that connects the network to the Internet.