New program offers more IP addresses

By Jennifer Loren, NEWS 9

The World Wide Web is not as big as it used to be. In fact, the Internet is almost completely full as the Internet is running out of IP addresses.

The problem has been on computer geeks' radar screens for a long time and a solution is on the way.

Damon DoRemus is a self proclaimed computer geek.  He's also the vice president of Tulsa's own Geek Rescue and he says the computer fix-it business is good.

"It's growing at an exponential rate. We're very happy with it," said Damon DoRemus.

As his business builds and the world's demand for computers increases, the available space online decreases.

"And it's a big problem. The reason it's a big problem is the internet was not originally designed to do what we're doing with it," said Damon DoRemus of Geek Rescue.

The internet has become so popular it's actually running out of IP addresses.

"And everything that connects to the web, your router, computer, your phone, everything that connects to the web must have an IP address," said Damon DoRemus.

An IP address is much like a home address. If the city ran out of addresses a resident could only send and receive mail from existing businesses and homes. That's what could soon happen online.

"It doesn't mean that the Internet's just going to go away.  It's going to die. It just means that you won't be able to add more of these and more of these. And, that's bad because we all want to be on the web," said Damon DoRemus.

But, he says, don't worry.  The computer geeks who got us into this mess will get us out.  They've come up with an additional IP address system called IP-6 which should take over before we run out.

"Now IP-6 allows for way many more IP addresses. We're talking about ten to the billion to the billion to the billion. We're not going to run out anytime soon," said Damon DoRemus.

That means the rumors are true.  But, people should not necessarily be worried about running out of Internet space.