[alyrik]

Of course, what I'm proposing here - fixing the problems with NAT as a way of making IPv4 address exhaustion not be a problem for clients - doesn't help with IPv4 exhaustion for servers.

What would I propose for that?

* Using them more efficiently by having protocols support endpoint identification within a server (HTTP supports virtual hosting, SSL has spreading support for host identification in the SSL handshake process, SMTP has been fine with it for years, etc).

* Using incoming connection proxies / load balancers to have a small number of external IPs, connections to which are handled by a large number of backend servers

* Perhaps in the longer run, better usage of SRV records so that well-known ports fall into disuse, and server ports can be assigned by the administrator and then placed into the SRV record for that service, in effect making IPv4 addresses be 48 bits long.