Being the highest populated country on earth , China is obviously having the potential to become # 1 at many fields i guess .... atleast its true for having highest number of internet users in the world !!! ... According to available informations on internet , China is contributing nearly 20% of total internet users worldwide ... ( with growth rate of 1000+% during year '00 - '08 , compared to only 150% of USA ... its way hugeeeeeee difference, right ???) ...




But before moving to new , some "information" , about IP ... Like we know , in the protocol stack , IP ( Internet Protocol ) is basically used to identify any computer that is connected to internet network .. right ?? and as a common practice they use IP version 4 .. a.k.a. IPv4 , a 32-bit addressing system which allows 2³² unique addresses so that is the limit to have one and only one IP in whole world ... i know its very bigggggggggggg number but no matter how long that number is , it has one limit .. right ?? and being "non-technical" person , you might not be knowing that fact is , this number basket is about to get empty !!! ... means its just a matter of time when we will be out of these numbers , and you might believe it or not , but in human world we still identify things ... err .. including humans itself , by numbers only ... so IETF .. ( ... Internet Engineering Task Force ... " the keeper " of internet ) , has developed one new protocol namely ... IPv6 , a 128-bit addressing system , that can have , 2¹²⁸ address .. ( mathematically 1 addess for 1 person on earth !!! ) .... Hmm , but its not the story that i want to share ... its about China ...

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, under the current allocation speed, China's IPv4 address resources can only meet the demand of 830 more days and if no proper measures are taken by then, new Chinese netizens will not be able to gain normal access to the Internet.

Li Kai, director in charge of the IP business for CNNIC's international department, says that if a netizen wants to get access to the Internet, an IP address will be necessary to analyze the domain name and view the pages. At present, most of the networks in China use IPv4 addresses. As a basic resource for the Internet, the IPv4 addresses are limited and 80% of the final allocation IP addresses have been used. By the current allocation speed, China's IPv4 address resource can only meet the demand of 830 more days. If there is no available new resource by then, new netizens will not be able to gain normal access to the Internet and the business expansion of network operators will be impossible.

Li says that a new IPv6 network address, which is a basic network resource without these limitations, has been developed in America, but this kind of IP address is only used among educational websites in China. To use the IPv6 network address, network operators need to spend a lot of time and money on equipment updating.

May the force be with you ....