What is an IP ?

What is an IP ?

An IP is the real, numerical address of a website or other resource on the Internet, or on a local network. The correct term is Internet Protocol address, but we commonly shorten it to IP. Computers cannot work with human-readable names so they use numeric equivalents. There are hundreds of millions of websites and the system would come to a grinding halt if readable names such as 'lp-web-development.com' were used. We refer to these as friendly names, they are an alias for the real, numerical address.

The current format for IPs is of four blocks of numbers like this: 83.223.104.89 -- which is called the IPv4 system. These numbers are running out fast as it was never expected that such vast numbers of users would need to be accommodated. A new system will soon be implemented, called the IPv6 system, with IPs that look like this: 2001:db8:85a3:0:0:8a2e:370:7334

By 2012 the current IPv4 address space will be exhausted and IPv6 will need to be implemented fully - it is currently running as a parallel technology but has not proved popular as there are some hardware issues. As soon as the IPv4 addresses are used up, IPv6 will receive wider implementation. At first this will cause a great deal more problems than for example the Y2K issue, since it is certain that some equipment will be incompatible.

What is a dedicated IP ?

What is a unique IP ?
What is a static IP ?
A dedicated IP is also called a unique IP or static IP. It is an address allocated to a single website alone.

Normally, a website shares a server and all resources with many other sites - this is called shared hosting. Economy shared hosting commonly offers 400 sites per server, good quality shared hosting has 200 sites per server, and high quality shared hosting is restricted to around 50 websites per server. All these sites share the same IP or address. Note that cheap shared hosting may have 3,000 sites per server or more.

For a business website, sharing an IP is not a good choice, for several reasons:
  • Other sites at the same address may not be reputable
  • It seems to indicate that the site has little importance to the owner
  • It is a low-quality signal

Therefore we insist that all sites we work with are allocated a dedicated IP. This has the following benefits:
  • It appears that the site is on a dedicated server
  • It shows the owner invests in the site's future
  • It removes the possibility of trash sites being associated with the business
  • It is an important quality signal

How to get a dedicated IP

All webhosts can allocate a dedicated IP to customers, there is no 'shortage'. There are sufficient IPs for all business users who require one - when the current series runs out in 2012, the new numbers are ready to go. The new IPv6 system addresses are already being issued.

Some hosts automatically allocate a dedicated IP to all new customers since this is an important business factor; and some will even allocate a block of 50 dedicated IPs to a customer if required. Therefore it can be seen that there is no problem, difficulty, or issue with the allocation of a single, unique IP to anyone requesting one. Charges range from $10 per year upward, and are usually less than $25, so are extremely cheap - as might be expected, since IPs do not cost anything, they are allocated en masse to the ISPs, who in turn allocate them to webhosts.

However, certain webhosts cannot obtain IPs. These are always in one of two groups:
  • Small resellers, who rent server space and resell it - they are not allocated more IPs by the real host. They also have no access to the server of course.
  • Small hosting businesses that are mismanaged - IPs are a vital business resource, not some kind of optional extra

As you can imagine, neither of these types of host are the sort of provider that your business site should be hosted with. Take note of this point because we have found it to be a valuable guide to the quality of the hosting service - hosts who cannot issue dedicated IPs have always proved less than competent in several areas, in our experience.

The IP as a physical address

The IP address also gives a physical location and ownership, both of the website and the hosts (as well as the issuing ISP although this is of less innterest). Therefore your IP states what country and city you are in, and who your webhost is.

Of course, geolocation refers to the host's datacentre, not where the website is 'supposed' to be - but it is wise to link the two as closely as possible. So, if your site sells in Canada you must host the site in Canada, otherwise there are negative implications. You cannot host the site in Australia and expect to maximise results in Ireland. These considerations are central to SEO strategy of course.

Local IPs

On your office LAN the IPs are of a different format. For example the address of the central router might be: 192.168.0.1

And even your PC has internal IPs for routing requests. If you installed a server application on your PC, then wanted to talk to it, the address (aka localhost) would be: 127.0.0.1

We hope you found this IP tutorial interesting.

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