In writing Are you ready for the big internet crunch?, CNN creates a straw man: the Internet is running out of IP addresses. The problems begin in the very first sentence of the scare piece:
Within 18 months it is estimated that the number of new devices able to connect to the world wide web will plummet as we run out of "IP addresses"....
"We" are not running out of IP addresses. If your computer runs a recent operating system, then it can handle IPv6, which allows for "unlimited" IP addresses. No worries. If your devices can currently access the Internet, even on IPv4, no worries.
The problem may occur only for new devices that are not IPv6 enabled, which is increasingly rare.
Half-way through, CNN provides relief while sounding like a climate alarmist:
But while this sounds like a complete disaster -- another Millennium Bug -- it need not be, and there is a solution, if we all act quickly enough.
Again, there nothing "we all" need to do. A couple of paragraphs later, CNN admits that it isn't our problem after all:
The problem is that businesses are proving slow to adapt their technology to IPv6...
So the problem is limited to some businesses (who tend to expand their IP devices internally, or through external Web sites), who still have another 18 months to install IPv6.
To answer the question CNN posed in the photo caption, "Time to panic?" No worries, CNN. The Internet sky isn't falling. Except for your ratings, for publishing techo-trash like this. As commenter GDINYput it:
Since this is CNN, I will take a deep breath and reiterate the usual comments; this is all Bush's fault / it was the Tea Party / corporate greed / 2012 is coming / AND this is Mother Earth retaliating for all the abuse that humans have been doing to it.
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