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.
The 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 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 for the rest of the sites to get back up and running. A dedicated IP address is needed to avoid this problem.
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.
Conclusions
Now you know why you need dedicated IP addresses. They provide reliability and protection not available to websites with shared IP addresses.
