addresses

Microsoft's search engine will be one of the major Web sites available in a synchronized effort to iron out problems moving to a vastly more spacious Internet based on the coming IPv6 standard.

"On June 8, we will enable worldwide IPv6 connectivity to Bing.com, for the purposes of a one-day test," Bing program manager Kevin Boske said. "Consumers with IPv6 Internet capabilities will automatically access this new method of connectivity. This necessitates both a device that supports IPv6 (like a Windows 7 PC), and support from your Internet provider."

IPv6, or Internet Protocol version … Read more

The Internet's overseers bid adieu to the last 83.9 million addresses needed to connect devices to today's Net--then took advantage of the moment to evangelize the next-generation Internet and the dangers of life support for today's Net.

Today's Internet is wired up with a technology called Internet Protocol version 4, or IPv4, which comes with 4.3 billion addresses to send data from one computer to another. That's a lot, but it's not enough, so now the move to the vastly more accommodating IPv6 is beginning in earnest.

"This is one most … Read more

Today is the beginning of the end of the Internet as we know it.

That's because the rules that govern how data is sent across the Net, a standard called Internet Protocol version 4, just became significantly more obsolete. The central Net authorities just handed out the last batches of IPv4 addresses at a ceremony today in Florida, beginning the cascade of scarcity that eventually will mean the computing industry must make the painful transition to the newer but incompatible IPv6.

It's not an urgent problem for average consumers with broadband or even for many businesses with lots … Read more

Who knew that 4.3 billion Internet addresses wouldn't be enough?

Internet pioneer Vint Cerf has sounded the alarm bell once again by warning that the world is about to run out of IP addresses. Cerf, who also serves as Google's chief internet evangelist, pinned the blame on himself for the lack of sufficient addresses in a recent interview published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Initially seeing the Internet as just an experiment that would eventually end, Cerf said he never anticipated the world would need more than the 4.3 billion addresses currently capable of being allocated.… Read more

Facebook is temporarily putting the kibosh on a new tweak that gave apps the ability to capture someone's cell number and address.

Pushed through on Friday, the new change expanded on the information already available to third-party app developers based on a user's permissions.

When downloading a Facebook app, people have always been asked if they want to share their name, picture, friends list, and other information. The change threw in an additional request asking to share a person's address and mobile phone number.

Concerns quickly arose that Facebook users might click the option to allow access … Read more

McDonald's has disclosed that one of its customer databases was hacked but insists that no financial information was stolen in the breach.

The fast food chain reported yesterday that the hacker was able to grab e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, and other customer information of people who signed up online for special promotions. In a statement e-mailed to CNET, the company said that no credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive financial data were compromised.

McDonald's said it was informed of the breach by one of its business partners, Arc Worldwide, which had collected … Read more

How many times have you broken down and passed out your primary e-mail account to Web sites and other online entities because you didn't have the time to mess with an extra account? Does it bother you that some sites ask for your e-mail address when clearly they don't need it? Do you get spammed after using your e-mail address to sign up for something? For these and other times when you don't care to share, there's My-spambox, a free Firefox add-on. My-spambox uses a JavaScript application to generate a temporary e-mail address that will function … Read more

When using Address Book to manage contacts, one of its useful features is to be able to add custom labels to the various contact fields. For instance, instead of being limited to "Work," "Home," and "Mobile" as the names for phone numbers, you can add "Emergency," "Vacation house," or even "Space shuttle" as the name for a contact's phone number.

This functionality is working in Snow Leopard, but there appears to be a bug with the ordering of these items, which results in an apparently random listing … Read more

Apple has acknowledged a newly-discovered security flaw in the iPhone and is promising to offer a fix with next month's release of iOS 4.2.

The new flaw allows someone to access the phone dialer on a locked iPhone by punching a certain sequence of buttons, thereby giving them the ability to make phone calls, send e-mails, and access the address book. Confirmed by Wired Magazine, the Boy Genius Report, and other online sources, the flaw was reportedly first discovered and posted by a user on the MacRumors online forum on October 22.

Bypassing the lock requires someone to … Read more