BALLISTIC DOMAINS
This Ballistic Domains article about dedicated IP addresses and dedicated IP hosting helps you understand all about web hosting on dedicated IPs. Hosting on dedicated IP addresses explained by Ballistic Domains, leading dedicated IP hosting company.
A dedicated IP address can be compared to a phone number. When someone calls your phone number, only your phone rings. In web hosting, this serves a very important purpose; separation. In web hosting, a standard, non-dedicated IP address can be thought of as a phone number you call, and get a directory listing; to reach a specific person please dial their extension. This difference makes the uses behind the two very different.
A dedicated IP address can be used for any website. There are no special requirements in order for your website to have a dedicated IP address. However, there are some situations where your website is required to have a dedicated IP address. The most common is an ecommerce website that needs to use an SSL. SSLs are used to encrypt data that is sent through a website. The reason that a website with an SSL needs a dedicated IP is that an SSL opens a secure line of communication between two servers. If multiple websites were to share one IP, and try to send this type of information, there would be no way to tell from which website any piece of information originated from. A dedicated IP removed this anonymity, and makes an SSL secure.
The other common use of a dedicated IP address is for an FTP server. An FTP server is simply a server setup for the purpose of transferring files from one location to another. A dedicated IP is certainly not required for this type of application, however, companies or businesses sometimes require a dedicated IP to prevent caching issues that could occur with using a dynamic IP masked by a domain name. If a dedicated IP used, the route to the FTP server will be static, and files availability assurance increases. In this case, the IP address would be referred to as a Static IP address, which has the exact same features as a dedicated IP address, with the exception that they never change, while a dedicated IP address can.
