As stated by howstuffworks.com (What is an IP address?), 'An IP address is assigned to every device connected to the Internet. This is a 32-bit protocol, as it is made up of 4 binary octets. However, they are usually written in decimal format for ease of use. The maximum decimal number allowed by an octet is 255 (or 11111111 in binary). The total number of unique 4-octet possibilities would then be 256^4, about 4.3 billion addresses. The demand for IP addresses is increasing for reasons such as low-cost computers, technological advancement, and improvements in accessibility. Personal computers have seen a dramatic fall in price over the last 10 years, allowing them to be purchased by more households: 70% had at least one in 2007, compared to 49% in 2001/2 (statistics.gov.uk ). This only happened in the UK, but the same thing happened globally. Technological progress has allowed mobile phones to connect to the Internet, thus dramatically increasing the number of devices that connect to it. Internet access via mobile phones has increased as 3G networks allow decent download speeds of up to 14Mbps, compared to 2G with 114Kbps. Accessibility to computers has also been advanced, with the general public being proficient at it, as opposed to a specialist. This is due to the development of GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces). The GUI means you don't have to type commands into your computer using a terminal, rather you can click a button, which is handy as it saves you having to learn a new language. Disabled people can also use computers, as specialist software comes with recent operating systems, such as a narrator, screen magnifier and voice recognition software.An increase in w...... half of the paper.. ....Translation Works [Online] Available at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/nat.htm [Accessed November 1, 2009]NAT diagram from Dan's electronics and computer blog. Routers, Firewalls and NAT (Network Address Translation)... uh, I'm confused [Online] Available at http://www.zippyreviews.com/consumer_electronics_computers_blog/computer-peripherals-and-accessories/routers-firewalls-and-network - address-translation-nat [Accessed 3 November 2009]The Telegraph, 2008. Internet will run out of IP addresses by 2010, warns Vint Cerf [Online] Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews /3076933 /Internet-will-run-out-of-IP-addresses-by-2010-warns-Vint-Cerf.html [Accessed November 5, 2009]COMPUTERWORLD, 2006. What you need to know about IPv6 [Online] Available at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9001770/What_you_need_to_know_about_IPv6 [accessed November 5 2009]