IPv6 is an internet protocol that was created to solve the problem of IPv4 address space depletion. The main reason for this depletion is because IPv4 addresses are limited to a maximum of 32 bits, which only allows 4.3 billion unique IP addresses (2^32). In contrast, IPv6 has 128-bits and 2128 potential IPs (2^128) – enough for every person on Earth having over 100 IPs! So how does one tell if they’re looking at an IPv6 address? To determine the size of an IPv address, we just need to count how many sets of four numbers in a row. The first set is the network identifier (or ‘NID’), which can be either 192 or 198-223 for private networks (i.e., those that do not have any global routes), and 224-239 for public ones; then follows two more sets: one with eight bits for host identifiers and another with 16 bits. If there are three such sequences, it’s IPv11 while if there are four – this is an IPv14 address! So what about addresses without spaces? For instance, 2001:0dbc::beef– these would also be considered as valid representations of ipv32s
