Real problems might come up for smaller outfits, however. You need compatible networking hardware to run on IPv6, and that can get expensive to replace if you've been holding on to IPv4 for as long as possible. And if you can't make that jump, you may have to buy those legacy addresses from someone else -- which won't be cheap when the older addresses are destined to be a scarce resource. Although you probably won't have to worry about your personal internet connections and favorite sites, there's a chance that some of the smaller services you use will have to shell out a lot of cash to maintain business as usual.

[Image credit: Alamy]