IPv4 vs IPv6: Why The Internet Ran Out of Addresses
Explore the transition from the legacy IPv4 address space to the virtually infinite possibilities of the IPv6 protocol.
Running Out of Numbers
Every device connected to the internet requires a unique public IP address to communicate, much like a mailing address for a house. The internet was built on Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which uses 32-bit mathematical addresses. This allows for roughly 4.3 billion unique public addresses.
In the 1980s, 4.3 billion seemed like an impossibly large number. Today, with billions of smartphones, laptops, smart TVs, and IoT devices, the world has officially run out of available IPv4 addresses.
The IPv6 Solution
To solve this crisis, engineers designed IPv6. Instead of 32 bits, it uses 128-bit addresses. The resulting number of available unique addresses is so astronomically large (340 undecillion) that we could assign an IP address to every single atom on the surface of the Earth, and still have plenty left over.
IPv4 Format: 192.168.1.1 IPv6 Format: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
Why This Affects Your Speed Test
Because ISPs are desperately short on IPv4 addresses, they often have to share a single public IPv4 address among hundreds of different homes using a technology called CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT). This intensive sharing process requires heavy routing equipment on the ISP side, which can introduce slight latency and cause headaches for peer-to-peer gaming.
If your ISP supports native IPv6, your device communicates directly with the speed test server without any intermediate address translation. This often results in a slightly lower, more stable ping during your speed test, and entirely eliminates the strict NAT issues commonly experienced on PlayStation and Xbox consoles.