´Super ip´ to the rescue!

THIS YEAR saw a significant turning point in the history of the Internet, albeit one which very few of its users will actually notice. On 6 June 2012, some of the biggest Internet companies in the world, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft, integrated permanent support for ´super protocol´ Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) addressing scheme into their websites, as opposed to the limited test access they had run previously, while telecommunications hardware manufacturers will turn on IPv6 connectivity by default in the broadband routers they sell to businesses and home around the world. The transition is a major achievement by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its partners, given the scale of the challenge; but some thorny issues will need to be overcome as IPv6 establishes itself.