When we are deciding that IP savings, etc are worth it, why not make all Cable/DSL/Dialup providers use NAT to map access logins to a small pool of IPs too? The software to do that transparently is already available for a very high percentage of applications. Heck, even upstreams could then NAT their downstreams' pools of IPs. We could run the whole internet off a single class C again.
We have been NATing a large percentage of our customers for years with great results, even delivering email behind the NAT by using a relay mail server. When I am scrambling for IP space and my requests for a portable /20 or even a portable /24 are denied, and cable/adsl.. providers put obtuse end users on live IP's....... The security and hacking problems alone make this a good idea. This is a far bigger problem I fear than web hosting. Most of us use Virtual Hosts for many good reasons already, only WinNT is a pain to setup for virtual hosting, and even it works. --Mike--