18 Quintillion Addresses and they’re all MINE!

So I signed up with Hurricane Electric’s tunnel service to get myself on the IPv6 bandwagon before Eastlink is able to. For the uninitiated, IPv6 is a new version of Internet addressing to replace the current IPv4 address scheme (192.168.0.1, etc) which is only 32 bits with a 128 bit address scheme. 32 bits only provides for around 4 billion unique IPs. Where as 128 bits provides an astronomical 2^128 addresses. In a typical setup, every individual IPv6 subscriber is given their own 64-bit subnet. This allows each user to have 18 quintillion IPs at their disposal. It’s not intended that anyone will actually USE anywhere near that allotment, but it will make network segregation and organization a lot easier with all that breathing room.

In other news, I’ve been giving some thought to replacing my standalone programmable thermostat with one run from my server. This would allow for network access and the ability to adjust the settings and temperature from the Internet. I’m still weighing out the pros and cons to this, so a future update may be in the works.