31 years have passed since the first internet protocol structure was put in place and now, we’re faced with an obstacle. The internet is in danger of running out of free IP addresses - at least according to Google’s chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf.

According to Cerf, often referred to as “the father of the internet”, out of the 4.2 billion possible addresses there are only around 600 million left. I know that sounds like an awful lot, but with the expected explosion in the number of mobile devices connected to the internet, the world could run out of free addresses as early as late 2009/early 2010. Scary, isn’t it?

There’s a new system, known as IPV6, already in place though. IPV6 can provide up to 2^128 addresses (340 trillion trillion trillion), and Cerf is urging ISPs to inform customers of the upcoming switchover.