.ORG just reached another milestone in its campaign to foster a more robust and secure Internet. Beginning today, July 31, the Internet addressing system known as IPv6 will be deployed for testing, and will shortly be available for full use by registrars.

The reason that this is an important development can be explained as follows, courtesy of the Internet Society web site:

“Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are unique numeric identifiers that are needed by every device that connects to the Internet. They are a shared common resource that must be managed carefully to ensure the continued growth and stability of the Internet. Most of the Internet is currently addressed with IP version 4 (IPv4)….IPv6 is the next generation IP address, offering vastly more unique addresses than are possible under IPv4. IPv6 has been available and used for many years, but levels of deployment and understanding remain relatively low.”

In its announcement to registrars, .ORG emphasized that use of IPv6 is optional, and .ORG will continue to support IPv4. Registrars may upgrade their clients and customer-facing interfaces as desired.

.ORG welcomes your comments.