Should you have a Shared (Dynamic) or Dedicated (Static) IP Address?

07/31/2007

David Brown

The unique name that identifies your Web site Web browsers that want to connet to it is the domain name, such as cnn.com or yahoo.com.. The domain name is usually, but not always, associated with a unique IP (Internet protocol) address, which is made up of 4 groups of three digits such as 192.282.801.433. Most large Web sites have a dedicated IP (Internet Protocol) address that is all their own. If you type the IP address of the Web site in a browser, it will always display the same Web site. Some Web hosting companies, however, use dynamic or shared IP addresses. In the latter case, when a domain name is sent to the server, the server looks up the name and connects to the correct Web site, which may be one of several at the same IP address. Using one IP address for multiple sites frees up IP addresses, which are becoming a scarce resource. If a site has a shared or dynamic address, when a browser asks for a domain name, the server looks up that domain name and sends the correct page to the browser requesting it. In those cases, you cannot get to a Web site by typing its IP address into the browser. If you have a business or other site that requires Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protection, for example, for financial transactions, you probably need a dedicated IP address. There are rumors that search engines discriminate against Web sites with dynamic or shared IP addresses. These rumors have been denied by at least some search engine companies however.