The networks are not less than a large black hole where nothingness explodes, and device recognition would not exist. Thankfully, an IP address is the only light that gives your devices a separate identity across the networks.
To help you understand what is an IP address let me just simply explain that an IP address is a unique designator assigned to every device that works on a network. You may be wondering why is an IP address even important? So, the answer is that the IP address is important because it delivers the data to its exact destination.
Typically, there are two types of IP addresses, one is Shared IP address, and the other is dedicated IP address. The focus of my blog would be around the dedicated IP address, but for the unversed, I will also explain the basics of the shared IP address.
Moreover, you will also understand why do you need a dedicated IP address for your online business.
Table of Contents
- What is a Dedicated IP address?
- What is the difference between a Shared and Dedicated IP address?
- Top Reasons to use a dedicated IP address for Online Business
- How to find the geographic location of an IP address?
- Is dedicated IP hosting right for you?
- Where to get a dedicated IP address?
- Conclusion
What is a Dedicated IP address?
IP refers to the Internet Protocol, and it is a unique address consisting of a string of numbers assigned to each connected computer on a network. An IP or internet protocol address acts as a unique identifier that provides the correct location of a website, or a device on a specific network.
What is the difference between a Shared and Dedicated IP address?
Now, let’s discuss the difference between a shared and a dedicated IP address. The main and the most prominent difference is that a shared IP address is a single address that is used by various users within one web server.
With a shared IP address, the web server is responsible to do some extra work to analyze the users’ request to the accurate website. On the other hand, a dedicated IP address is the one that is used by a single user only.
For example, when you try to access streaming platforms like Netflix from an unsupported region, you use a VPN. Some VPNs offer shared IP addresses with a slow connection, but only the best VPN for Netflix offers a dedicated IP address that supports multiple devices with reliable speeds and good coverage.
Moreover, users always have to pay extra for a dedicated IP address compared to the static/ shared IP address. Many USA VPN companies offer dedicated IP addresses that you can use for personal, or professional purposes.
Top Reasons to use a dedicated IP address for Online Business
There are many reasons why a dedicated IP address is recommended to use for an online business. However, we will only discuss the main ones below:
1. Secure and Fast File Transfer
A dedicated IP address provides faster speeds for file transfers. It is because with a dedicated IP address, you don’t need to struggle with web traffic since, you’re the only user who is using it.
Also, a dedicated IP lets you form a file transfer protocol (FTP) server to share files within an organization. A private FTP server ensures strong protection and a faster file transfer speed.
2. Secure Access to Company Resources
A dedicated IP address enables employees to securely access organizational resources. Moreover, with the help of a dedicated IP address, administration can also control and restrict access of the sensitive resources safely. To restrict access, you can assignspecific IP addresses and restrict access to servers and gateways you select.
3. No Risk of IP Blacklisting
Typically, sharing an IP address is considered safe, but your site will experience country specific blocking. Moreover, your rival websites might send spam email, malware or other bad actors to get you blacklisted by search engines.
Luckily, a dedicated IP address eliminates the risk of getting your website blocked unless you perform some malicious task.
4. Faster email delivery
Web hosting accounts that use shared IP addresses manage to deliver emails faster. Mail servers are very much focused on IP addresses and email services like Gmail, and Yahoo considers emails secure that come from dedicated IPS. These email providers often monitor emails that contain shared IP addresses because such emails mostly come from accounts that have spam IPs.
5. Offers Highest Possible Uptime
With a dedicated IP address, there is no need to continuously translate domain names into actual IP addresses when your server resets. It gets you the highest possible uptime. It also helps your users to instantly connect with your website without any delays. All in all, a dedicated IP address makes your file transfers fast and easy since the small connection interruptions will not affect the downloading process for larger files.
How to find the geographic location of an IP address?
If you wish to check out the geographic location of a user that visits your website then you can easily do it by using an online IP lookup tool. This tool helps online businesses to better understand user stats and help companies in analyzing who is visiting their website, how valid is the IP address, or whether the user is using a proxy server or if he/she is on the blacklist. Besides that, this tool is also very useful to check if traffic is a bot or a threat in any way. All these stats are extremely relevant, and help online businesses in expanding their accuracy.
Is dedicated IP hosting right for you?
If you host a website withhigh integrity and hosting reliability, then a dedicated IP address is a must-have for you. Making use of a dedicated IP address gets you various benefits that you have come across above. A dedicated IP address also assists many web applications to work securely since it increases the overall default security of a website.
Where to get a dedicated IP address?
There are two ways to get the dedicated IP address. You can either contact a web hosting company to get it, or buy a VPN (Virtual Private Network) subscription that offers a dedicated IP address.
Conclusion
A dedicated IP address is considered more secure and advanced compared to the shared IP address. It allows you to operate online in a secure way every time with the same IP address. This IP address also improves your browsing and file transfer rate since the IP is not shared with any other users. Since, a dedicated IP address offers so many benefits for your online business, therefore, it always comes with an extra price tag.