What Is an IP Address?
IP stands for Internet Protocol and is defined as a unique address assigned to any computer that is connected to a network. An IP address plays the role of a unique identifier that is used to provide a valid location of a machine or a website in a given network.
What are the differences between a Shared and Dedicated IP address?
A shared IP address is a single address used by multiple domains within one server. However, do not confuse shared hosting with a shared IP. With shared hosting, you are sharing server hardware and networking resources with a variety of other users. You can still be on a shared hosting account and have either options of a shared IP or a Dedicated IP address assigned to your domain.
Having a Dedicated IP address means your domain or website has its very own address and you can use either the IP address directly or the domain name of your website to access it on the internet.
What are the benefits of a Dedicated IP Address?
- It grants ease of access to your website
- Sometimes, it is necessary to review what a website will look like before pointing a domain name to the server. A dedicated IP address grants you the ability to access the website directly without changing any DNS settings for the domain name.
- Good for a business identity
- If you are going to host your online store or any other e-commerce-related website, and you are not going to use additional third-party services for processing payments, it is quite essential to have a Dedicated IP address with an SSL certificate for the website to ensure data security for your customers.
- Beneficial to the email sender’s reputation
- There are some cases where a user you share an IP address with gets banned or blacklisted for sending spam emails. This banning or blacklisting could affect your email service as well. Using a dedicated IP address for email isolates your service from the abuse consequences where others are at fault.
- It May be required for particular third-party applications and or scripts
- If you are running a unique server setup or script, it will most likely need to run on a Dedicated IP address.
You should now have a better understanding of what a dedicated IP address is, the benefits it holds for your website and email service, and how it differs from a shared IP address.
Namhost offers the option of assigning a dedicated IP address to your domain name, even if you are on one of our shared hosting packages. For more information please feel free to contact us.