The Internet was invented by a U.S. company. Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, a subset thereof. This information is readily available on the Internet, so your mistake is puzzling.

David Govett, Davis, California, USA

Umm Vint Cerf was one of two who invented TCP which the protocol that gives us connections over the internet. He is not the father of the internet. Neither is Tim Berners Lee. He is one of two who invented the World Wide Web which is what we use to surf web pages. That is not all of the internet

Mark, Fairfax,

Alex Kerr - Vista is brilliant, I love it... but then again, I have a Q9450, a HD4850 with 512MB DDR3 and 4GB of RAM...

Graeme, Edinburgh,

If Al Gore is the father of the internet, who then is the mother? Hillary Clinton?

vinnyyak, portland, USA

DARPA as father?

Ok, fine. Then Vint is the single mother who gave birth to the Internet and nurtured its growth with his life partner, with the biological father providing child support payments.

Karl K, Schaumburg, IL, USA

My router allows any computer in my home to connect to the internet through a single IP address. It's called Network Address Translation (NAT). So long as my router supports IPv6 it doesn't matter whether my computers use IPv4 or 6.

Rick, Surrey,

Oh, I think the 'net will survive. Somehow, I jus' think they'll come up with a solution.

Kevin, St. Paul, USA

Al Gore had nothing to do with the internet, other than exploiting it and trying to regulate it's use to benefit his Democratic' party people. The internet was initiallt developed by the US Military in 1962 and was called ARPA. From there, it develpoed into ARPANET in the late 60's.

Brandon, Ft. Knox, KY, USA

Maybe John McCain should further suspend his campaign to adress this issue...

Kristine, Boston, US

I've been in the networking business for long enough to know that every time some one claims we are running out of IPv4 addresses, an RFC is proposed that prevents us from having to change every networking device to IPv6 (eg RFC 1918). If we have not deployed IPv6 it is because we don't need it.

Richard D. Henkus, san jose, ca

My ten computers have IP addresses that match the IP addresses of anyone who uses the same subnet of private numbers. So they are not unique. Neither are the public addresses unique to EVERY computer because all ten of my computers share that same unique public address.

Mike, Orlando, USA

"Every computer and online device is assigned a unique Internet Protocol address" is technically wrong and very misleading (maybe for drama?). The problem is real, but let’s not let it get overblown for a doomsday effect.

Mike, Orlando, USA

To solve the paternity suit:
Tim Berners-Lee - Credited with inventing the naming system which gave rise to the www
Vint Cerf - One of the main inventors of the prococols which enable the WWW and e-mail and peer-to-peer and usenet and VoIP and IM, etc to function
Al Gore never claimed paternity

Joe McNamee, Brussels, Belgium

OK, all you Brits, I'll explain slowly. The Internet was invented by Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn, way back, for the US Dept of Defense. I was on an early consumer manifestation of the Internet, called Compuserve, back in 1980. No Windows, just 'green screen'. Berners-Lee invented a mark-up language.

John, Cleggan, Ireland

Algore didn't invent the internet, but he did invent the beard when he forgot to shave for several days after the 2000 election.

Carter, Port Townsend, USA

Tony, Tim Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web (a method of communicating over the Internet)

Richard, London,

If Vint is the father of the internet, who is the mother? or isnt he saying?

Steve Bush, Cirencester, UK

Actually, John, it WAS Al Gore who, as a congressman, spearheaded the funding that spawned DoD's Arpanet, the military predecessor to what is now called the internet.

Chris, Sebastopol, USA

caps and letters? It already is a hex system. You are just seeing it in decimal. the range is 0:0:0:0 TO FF:FF:FF:FF.

Steve, San Diego, US

"He said the bulk of companies had no idea about IPv6 and the ISPs were not informing them." Sorry, I don't buy this. IPv6 has been taught for a while. Equipment exists that supports IPv6. The U.S. govt (at least the military) uses IPv6 now. I expect most ISPs and tier 1 carriers support IPv6 now.

Bill, Virginia Beach, United States

Joleen Worden, Bedford, USA, makes an excellent point - here in Australia it's a legal requirement to recycle the old IP address from your computer before you throw it out and as a result we are able to massively reduce our carbon footprint.

We're a green people :-)

Ed Bullen, Melbourne, Australia

NAT is unnecessary in IPv6.It was a big hack to ensure the small IPV4 address space would last longer than it would last otherwise.
As for IPv4 exhaustion being the new Y2K, you will connect to the internet with V4, but behind a NAT, unless you pay a lot of money for a public IP.

Pedro, BHZ, Brazil

IPV6 can run in tandem with IPV4 devices through NAT translation. So, no devices or systems will even see any difference. It's not the consumer who has failed, it's the major INTERNET providers who have not already setup this massive NAT infrastructure.

FrankenPC, San Leandro, USA

Hey John Wright: Gore never claimed to have invented the internet. He just helped fund its development. Us American liberals have taken the time to educate ourselves with facts. You should try the same.

J Marshall, Brooklyn, USA

If you run an Apple or Microsoft operating system (or, no doubt, any major distribution of Linux), your computer is already set to use IPv6 addresses. You don't need anything new.

This is the problem; no one stands to profit from the conversion to IPv6. There's nothing new to sell you.

Niali, Seattle, USA

I thought the internet came to me through a server from a source I subscribe to such as Comcast. If the internet talks to a number inside each individual computer, why do all the ones in my house have to be on one network? What about reusing the numbers in the thousands of computers thrown away?

Joleen Worden, Bedford, USA

Ok chaps, I'm an engineer for an ISP. IP6 will be slow to catch on due to the huge technical aspect of running two addressing protocols. Routers struggle enough with IP4, let alone adding the instability of a new IP suite. There are not enough skills in the workplace either.

paul martin, camberley,

Newt Gingrich said: "In all fairness... Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet."

Roger G., Palo Alto, CA, US

"My question is, how does one make their computer, which utilizes IPv4, utilize IPv6? Is the transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6 on a machine easy, difficult, or would we have to buy a whole new system?

Kurtis, Point Lookout, "

You don't need to do anything, it's included in your OS service packs.

Robert, NYC, USA

Gore may have "not" invented the Internet - but he was closer to funding its development - than was McCain to "inventing" my blackberry.
:)

David Mussington, Washington DC, USA

Would all the American liberals please get over Al Gore! The Internet was created long before the word was a twinkle in Gore's political self-aggrandizing. His exact quote is, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." (Interview with Wolf Blitzer, March 1999). Create/Invent...neither is true

John Wright, Aberdeen, USA

You Republicans are beating a horse that's been dead for roughly 8 years now. Someone in the media took Al Gore's 'internet' quote out of context. Ignorant morons took it seriously, thinking Al Gore believed he invented the internet.

Do a little research before jumping on bandwagons. It'll HELP you

Eric, California, USA

allow caps and letters....will add 256k x 256 to adresses...
go hex!

David, hilo, USA

I call bull on this one. If you look at the current list of bogon IPs available (IP address ranges that have not been assigned yet by ARIN) you'll see that there are still approximatley 38 - /8 blocks left which is 16.7 million x 38, or approx 637 million IP addresses not in use as of May 08.

Craig, Salt Lake, USA

@Patrick and others: Please provide the exact source citation where Gore claimed to have "invented" the Internet.
Now, back to the story--I personally worked on a secure router two years ago that was fully IPv6-compliant (and supported NAT). Just more fear-mongering by the MSM.

Mark, Boulder Creek, USA

Would all the American conservatives please google "Al Gore Vint Cerf", read the first few items listed, and then stop polluting the ether with uninformed little jokes about Gore inventing the internet. You only prove your own ignorance and the ever increasing Republican inferiority complex.

Marcus, Rochester, USA

If the new IPv6 system has been ready for implementation for a decade, why not just implement it? Why the doom & gloom brigade? Is the 'father' of the internet looking for his 15 minutes of fame?

Phil , Atlanta, USA

Have you seen Al gore lately? He needs to take up a new cause -- Save The Wales!

Guy Thompto, Cedarburg, WI, USA

Joke all you like. When the last address is used the Internet will switch to V2-IPV6 and you will be holding your joystick, wondering why you be so stupid now

Pico DeHo, Brandon, USA

The internet was invented by the RAND Corporation in Los Angeles and others at MIT. V Cert also played an important role in its development

B S Goh, Sydney, Australia

Please
IPv5 address space is NOT about to dry up. Without getting too geeky, Network address translation technology has ben around for years, and it allows huge numbers of computers to "share" a single IP Address to access the Internet.
As someone stated above, this is the next Y2K scare tactic.

Hemmann, Columbia MO, USA

TonyG, Tim Berners-Lee was founder of the World Wide Web which, contrary to popular belief, is not the same as the Internet. Internet is the physical connection between different devices, the web uses the Internet to exchange data. The Internet began with DARPA in the US.

Rich, London,

It is quite wrong for companies to say "people haven't ask for [xyz]" - surely that is very bad business practice? When it comes to IP the users just want to connect and most users, even the very IT literate really don't think about IP every time they switch on and connect.

Peter Nicholls, Stoke on Trent, UK

The father of the internet is the US Military... look up DARPA

Mandingo Jonesq, Surrey, UK

This makes no sense. I believe that I see another Y2K scam in the making! Follow the money.

David, Minneapolis MN, USA

I thought Tim Berners-Lee was the founder of the internet? This Cerf guy appears to have set up a Wikipedia page to make this claim of being father of the internet, and journalists duly repeat it without question.

TonyG, York, UK

IPv6 is not the answer to all. The number scheme seems quite large on the outside, but one will not have all these available. The scheme which has been devised already includes so many reserved set of numbers that the actual usable range is much more restricted. Still more then IPv4 but not for long

Pat Falardeau, Ottawa, Canada

Mike Harvey is correct, 340 trillion is: 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

It has been quite some years since the UK adopted the American system whereby a billion is 1,000 million, and a trillion is 1,000,000 million.

Bob, Metepec, Mexico

He means "fewer" (not "less") than 14% of those addresses. Must he murder the English language?

Alfred Meier, Port Soderick, United Kingdom

If the internet were looking for child support payments, would so many step up to the plate to claim to be its father?

keith kalish, milford,CT, USA

Why do we have to stop making fun of Al Gore? Anyone who has the combination of as large a political ego with so small a scientific intellect who is so stupid as to claim that he invented something he doesn't even understand deserves to be ridiculed forever.

SyLenze, Lewes,

Al Gore didn't invent the internet you fools, he invented global warming...and a good thing too. When he's finished, Kent will have a beach near my home, now 20 miles from the sea, and the winters won't be so chilly.

Bridgette, Kent,

In the late 1970’s, a protocol named ST — The Internet Stream Protocol — was created for the experimental transmission of voice, video, and distributed simulation. ST and ST+ offered connections, instead of its connection-less IPv4 counterpart. It also guaranteed QoS

James Blessing, Salford, UK

Okay, Okay, Al Gore did not invent the internet. But he created the internet!! Without the targeted tax cuts and legislation he started, the internet now would be roughly where were 10-15 years ago. The Clinton admin also created 80 mile per gallon diesel that was scheduled for 2001. But then...

Dennis, Omaha, NE, USA

Geek city is open for business as usual. Reality - the fix exists but isn't fit for business (no NAT). The business won't upgrade until it is. Don't tell us about it - fix it.
BTW Berners-Lee invented the WWW publishing system that uses internet for distribution - think paper and printing press.

KR, Stockport,

Gosh you mathematicians are interesting ... but, call me old-fashioned, shouldn't the internet protocol that follows IPv4 be..er...IPv5...?

Tim, London,

Ha ha ha ha; all these Al Gore jokes make me chuckle.
C'mon, Terry, it's just good clean fun.

Emily, Fredericksburg, USA

Al Gore helped oil the political wheels which allowed the internet to be created ( ARPANET ).

Dave North, Wick, UK

You only have a billion, trillion, trillion. Please add 3 more zeros. Thank you.

Regards,

Ms. Betts
(your middle school math teacher)

Maddie Betts, Manchester, UK

Gee, the article said, "Father of the Internet." I thought I was about to read an article from Algore with another doomsday prediction.

James , Jacksonville, The United States of America thank you.

"Under IPv6, each address has 128 bits and so provides 340 trillion, trillion, trillion different addresses ... It is assumed that this will meet humanity’s needs for decades to come. "

This is 6.7 X 10^17 IP addresses for every square millimeter of the earth's surface. Decades???? Try forever!

DJ, Glendale, CA, USA

Al Gore was 'The Man'. After you youngins protest coal burning power plants, we need you to use civil disobedience to force the use of IPv6!

How is everyone going to download porn if they can't get on the Net!

Financial crisis nothing, WE NEED THIS FIXED NOW!

Barry, Chicago, USA

Wow, rehashing the Al Gore joke not once, but five times. *Yawn*
Christ, you get much funnier comments by liberals on the Guardian and Indie websites. You Republican Americans still need to work on your sense of humour.

Terry, Bristol, UK

Wasn't the Internet supposed to be Free??

Eric, newcastle, uk

Listen closely people. Al Gore claims he "invented'" the internet. Vint Cerf is said to be "the father" of the internet. Two entirely different claims.

Patrick, Marquette, USA

No you mean 340 trillion trillion = 340 x 10 power 32

The "British System" which is used everywhere in the Union is:

Thousand is 10 to the power of 3
Million is 10 to the power of 6
Milliard is 10 to the power of 9
Billion is 10 to the power of 12
Trillion is 10 to the power of 18

Peter GODDARD, EPSOM, England, EU

I'm telling Al Gore!!!! He will sue you for infringing on his invention!!!

Darrell, Dallas,

And I thought Tim Berners-Lee was the father of the internet.

B.Ritt, Thetford, England

If you've got Vista, you're already where?

Gee, I could have had a Leopard!

Tom , W. St. Paul, United States

Hooray! Upgrade time again.

Thank God the brain isn't going to run out of neuronal combinations in a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years. Now that's planning ahead!

iain, bedford, uk

Currently, the IPv6 designers don't want to support NAT which is how every broadband router connects to the internet. This allows for an "internet" address facing the internet, and private addresses on your home PCs - question - who will be first to release an IPv6 to IPv4 NAT enabled router?

Bill, Olympia, USA

The author said 340 trillion, trillion, trillion...not 340 trillion.

Carl, Caribou,

He's not trying to make a point. He's saying the addresses will be equal to 340 Trillion x 1 Trillion x 1 Trillion or 3.4 x 10^38

Chris, Baltimore,

RE: Dan Obyrne

No, the author was writing out 3.4028 E+38 longhand. Note:he said Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, not just a trillion. Use your calculator and do 2^128.

Dan F., Tulsa, OK, USA

With the coming advent of microdevices communicating with each other (perhaps even within our bodies to repair physical breakdown and disease,) that many devices with unique addresses is not a far cry...

Steven, Visalia,

This isn't news. We've known for years that the internet was running out of IP addresses. The fact that the media considers this 'news' shows how out of touch they truly are/ Look who just caught up.

Hays Parks, Seattle, WA, USA

Is the author trying to make a point by putting all the extra zeros in 340,000,000,000,000.

dan obyrne, cavan, ireland

Chad is not up to speed. Windows XP has included IPv6 since SP1 ws released. That was several years ago.

Jeremy, Scunthorpe, UK

Chad, USA:

IPv6 support IS included in all Windows XP service packs from 1 upwards. Almost all copies of XP will now have been automatically or manually upgraded to at least service pack 1, so NO upgrade to Vista is required. Which is major relief, given how poor Vista is.

Alex Kerr, London, UK

Are you sure Vint Cerf isn't a character from Star Trek?

Ben, Queensland, Australia

I hope I never live in a world where 340 trillion trillion trillion devices are connected together. Human nature as we know it will cease to exist.

Aaron, Austin,

Re: Judd

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web; Cerf invented the Internet. The two are different: the internet is mechanism for sharing information, and the web is the information itself.

Jon, Stanford, USA

"... that is 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. It is assumed that this will meet humanity’s needs for decades to come. "

Decades to come? I should hope. That's more than the number of particles in the universe.

Paul , Fremont, USA

If you are on Windows XP you will not be able to use an IPv6 address. With Vista you can. Vista is ready out of the box to accept an IPv6 address. So basically you would need to upgrade to a new system.

Chad, Roanoke, USA

"The internet" is a system of hardware & software that allows for exchange of data between two separate points.

The "web" is built on Hyper Text Markup Language. This controls how a page is shown in a browser.

The "web" travels over the "the internet".

Internet = Postal Service
Web = magazine

Elio, Boston, US

Ok, quit the Al Gore jokes. Isn't Sir Tim Berners-Lee the inventor of the internet? Or is he the inventor of the World Wide Web? What's the difference?

Judd, Clifton, USA

I see another Millenium Bug bonanza but this time for IP networking engineers.......where do I sign up for a course on how to be an IP expert in 5 easy steps...

John, Reading, uk

Why Mr. Cerf... the father of the internet? This is not possible as it was former American Vice-President Al Gore who declared that is was in fact, HE, that created the internet.

Gary M, Austin, USA

Vint Cerf? Everyone knows Al Gore invented the internet, he said so himself. Therefor Vint Cerf must be a fraud and we should dismiss anything he says. I mean really! What is this world coming to? Fraudulent claims by frauds. What's next?

J.Frazer, Ocean Springs, USA

This isn't news. It's in the works and Mr. and Mrs. J. Q. Public won't have a darn thing to say about it--nor will they need to do so.

Just like the move from ARCNET to ETHERNET took place in the background, so is the switch going on now... If you've got Vista, you're already there...

jtb-in-texas, PLANO, TX, USA

Vint Cerf, the “father of the internet”??? Heck! I WAS LED TO BELIEVE IT WAS Algore......... Mr Al "Global Climate Change to be worried about" Gore.

john smith, LA, USA

Anyone remember Y2K? I thought Al Gore was the father of the internet.

Dee, San Luis Obispo, USA

What? Who is this imposter? Everyone knows that great Humanitarian and Global Warming Expert Al Gore invented the Internet! LOL!!!!!

RickDMedina, Medina, OH, USA

My question is, how does one make their computer, which utilizes IPv4, utilize IPv6? Is the transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6 on a machine easy, difficult, or would we have to buy a whole new system?

Kurtis, Point Lookout,

Whoa! Wait a minute. Who is this imposter Vint Cerf? I was expecting to hear from the REAL father of the internet-- Al Gore.

jim, omaha,

I thought Al Gore invented the internet. You mean it was someone else?

Mark Dias, Newark, USA