Who needs a dedicated IP address and why
In the world of modern internet technology, digital IP addresses play a key role. They are assigned to all users to identify them when they log on to a global or local computer network. There are external and internal, static and dynamic IPs, and shared and dedicated IPs. In this article, let’s look at the concept of a dedicated IP address, as well as who may need it and why.
What is a dedicated IP address?
A Dedicated IP Address (Dedicated Internet Protocol Address) is a digital identifier assigned to a specific user, site, or server on a network. On virtual hosts, all clients have the same IP by default, and a dedicated IP is provided by ISPs for an additional fee. A dedicated IP address cannot be used by other users, it is static (permanent, unchanging), which makes it unique. In other words, it is a private IP address that belongs only to you.
What is a dedicated IP address? Dedicated IP address technology works as follows:
- During domain registration, the site is assigned a static IP address of the server where it is located.
- When you type the URL of this website into your browser, the search engine uses the domain name to refer to a DNS server.
Next, the DNS-server sets the IP of the searched site and redirects the user there.
Why do I need a dedicated IP address?
Users of dedicated IP on virtual servers are usually online stores, banking and government agencies, e-mail services, file storage, FTP servers, VPN channels and many other resources where you need stable and secure access to the site via the Internet or local network.
Dedicated IP allows you to protect yourself from attacks, blacklisting in search engines and under filters of mail services.
Protection against DDoS attacks
Dedicated IP addresses provide better protection against DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. By using a dynamic IP address, hackers can flood a virtual server with traffic, causing all websites hosted on it to crash and fail. A server with a dedicated IP address will be protected from such cyber threats.
A dedicated IP address allows you to more effectively filter and control incoming traffic and protect yourself from attacks, even if it is on the attacked server. In a situation where a cyberattack is targeting a specific web resource with a dedicated IP, host administrators will be able to quickly eliminate the threat.
Protection against IP address blacklisting
If one of the users of a shared IP address abuses it, posts banned content, engages in fraud, uses black SEO tools, the entire IP can be added to search engine blacklists, which will cause problems for the rest of the hosting clients using the shared address.
Even if the ISP reacts quickly to the sanctions and blocks the culprit, it may take some time to get the rest of the sites back up and running. Dedicated IP address is necessary to avoid this problem.Even if the provider quickly reacts to sanctions and blocks the culprit, it may take some time to restore the work of other sites. Hosting with a dedicated IP helps to avoid these problems.
Protection against IP addresses being subject to mail service filters
Dedicated IP helps you avoid getting caught in spam filters. Shared IP addresses can be blocked by mail services due to the actions of individual users on the same IP who are spamming or sending junk mail.
Obsolete restrictions
Previously, a dedicated IP was required to install an SSL certificate. Currently, this is not necessary as providers utilize SNI technology. This technology allows SSL certificates to be installed on shared IPs. But some older versions of browsers do not support SNI (e.g. Internet Explorer 6, Safari for Windows XP). These browsers identify certified sites as potentially dangerous and block access to them. Therefore, the question of how to get a dedicated IP address to install a website security certificate remains relevant.
Other advantages of a dedicated IP address
If you are wondering what a dedicated IP address is, you should know that it offers the following benefits in addition to the ones listed above:
- Sites with a dedicated IP address tend to inspire more trust in users, which can lead to increased conversions.
- Search engines like Google rank sites with a dedicated IP address better.
- It helps to improve the deliverability rates of email newsletters.
- You can configure your server to work with specific applications that may not be available on servers with a shared IP address.
- You need it to create an FTP server, game server or VPN server.
- You can configure your server to work with IP telephony.
Knowing what a dedicated IP is will give you more options and benefits, as opposed to resources that are shared by a common IP.
Conclusions
Now you know why you need dedicated IP addresses. They provide reliability and protection not available to websites with shared IP addresses.
