We've got IPv4 and IPv6, yet nobody really talks about IPv5
What was IPv5? You might be surprised to learn it never really existed.
In the world of networking, most people are familiar with IPv4. These numerical labels, like 192.168.2.1, have been used to identify devices for decades and have been the primary addressing scheme responsible for contact between devices on the internet. As of 2025, less than half of internet traffic is over IPv6, meaning IPv4 still carries the majority of data despite its fundamental limitation of using 32-bit addresses. IPv4 has been on life support for years on account of its 4.3 billion address limit, leading to the advent of IPv6 with its 128-bit address space.
