Ilya Chernykh wrote:
My provider used dynamic IPs and also NAT to mitigate this problem. Using NAT there is virtully no problem with IP address shortage (NAT technology limits some network activities, but this does not concern the provider as there is plenty of users who are willing to pay for NAT access, some even ask to change their PPTP or PPPoE to NAT, erroneously confusing it with IPoE)
NAT has limitations and dynamic IPs only delay the problem as your ISP will eventually reach the point where there are not enough addresses for everyone who wants to use the internet.
My impression is they have hundreds of thousands if not millions of addresses much exceeding their user base. Not to say still most of their clients get real (dynamic) IPs so they have reserve to transfer all to NAT.
This is the crux of the matter - ISPs need to dish out IP-addresses. If they can't get them or can't get enough, they'll try (to find) other ways - NAT for instance. Only once they've exhausted both options, will IPv6 become a real option. For a small ISP, incompetent or not, that could still be quite a while. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (14.1°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org