I just got a new server with WHM and CPanel. I noticed that with WHM all name based hosting sites are automatically assigned the box IP address. It doesn't look like name based hosting can provided with any other IP address.

My concern is with the main site. So, if all the name based sites are sharing the same IP with the main site wouldn't that cause problems with certain search engines or networks if one of those sites make something stupid? In other words, if the name of my box is serverx.mydomain.com and I share its ip with multiple sites, would my domain get banned from certain search engines or other networks if someone that shares the same IP makes something stupid?

Is there a solution to this? Can name based hosting be provided with a different IP address?

I suggest you do a search on the issue of IP vs name based hosting as this question has been asked and answered before.

The short answer is "probably not" as the major search engines (top 15-18) seem to be aware that many unrelated sites share an IP address. There is nothing that can happen to you with a shared IP address that can't happen with a dedicated one.

You can read the details in discussions on this topic with a search on it.

Originally posted by Duster
I suggest you do a search on the issue of IP vs name based hosting as this question has been asked and answered before.

I have already searched for the topic and have only found what I already know. I am basically trying to figure out how to do it with the Web Host Manager. It seems like with WHM you cannot assign an IP address different than the box IP for name based hosting.

Thanks for the insight on the search engines. I guess I will have to share my IP with everyone else's. I cannot find anything that will tell me how to do it with WHM and its documentation is extremely limited.

:(

Originally posted by bert
I guess I will have to share my IP with everyone else's.

If your machine name is, say, server1.yourdomain.com, then it'll probably be "safer" if your main web site at www.yourdomain.com is setup to utilize a different IP. It probably wouldn't make too much of a difference, but you never know. ;)

Mark Vockler
Aletia Hosting

Originally posted by Mark Vockler
If your machine name is, say, server1.yourdomain.com, then it'll probably be "safer" if your main web site at www.yourdomain.com is setup to utilize a different IP.

Is that what you guys do?

Will that really make a difference? Isn't the reverse lookup for the box always going to give yourdomain.com for the shared IP address?

We do that, but because we provide each client with their own unique IP, it doesn't really affect us anyway.

Regarding reverse lookups, since search engines depend mainly on HTTP requests for spidering, having your main ServerName directive set to server1.yourdomain.com, as well as a virtualhost directive point this to another directory should be sufficient.

Mark Vockler
Aletia Hosting

Thanks Mark. I appreciate your help!

You're welcome. :)

Mark Vockler
Aletia Hosting