What is IPv6, and why does it matter?

June 6, 2012 marks the launch of a new era for the Internet — the switch to IPv6. Great, you say. What does that mean?

In really simple terms, it means that the Internet is expanding its address directory. Right now, there are 4.3 billion IP (internet protocol) addresses on the Internet, meaning that there’s a unique address for 4.3 billion devices to connect to the Web. With the launch of IPv6, which assigns addresses in a new way, that number can grow — to 340 trillion, trillion trillion. And believe it or not, we need the room. Most people shouldn’t see a difference in their daily Web use, though people who can only connect to the old protocol may have trouble seeing sites using only IPv6, but all the launch partners are running both protocols in parallel.