Enter IP version 6, or IPv6. IPv6 uses 128 bits for each address, but is not yet very widely used. Virginia Tech, being the cutting edge institution it is, already supports IPv6 campus-wide. While this does not directly affect your computing experience, connecting your computer to a native IPv6 networks has a few implications you should be aware of.

In IPv4, a computer would need to be told its address either manually or by using a network service called DHCP. In DHCP, the computer asks a server to assign it an IP address that is not in use by anyone else.