can someone explain to me the pros and cons of having a dedicated ip. i don't mean a dedicated server -- i've noticed some hosting packages that say dedicated ip and a cheaper one that says no dedicated ip. does it have to do with having www.hostname.com/myname versus www.myname.com??

thanks!
karen

Dedicated IPs are generrally used for things like SSL certs, Anonymous FTP, and wildcards (although I've heard the last 2 can be used without dedicated ip?).

Simple rule: If you don't need SSL certificates, anonymous FTP, or wildcards then don't request a dedicated IP.

Unless IPV6 comes out within the next year or two, there is going to be a BIG shortage of IPs if everyone wants one for no reason....

do you need a dedicated ip for MySQL?

kthaman,
No, you do not need a dedicated IP for MySql

Dedicated IP addresses are only needed for SSL certificates, anonymous FTP, and registered nameservers. Also, IPv6 is already out. It just has not seen widespread usage yet.

A few things:

1. You need not have a dedicated IP for having an SSL cert. You can bind an SSL cert to a different port than 443 and it will work.

2. Mysql, etc doesnt require a dedicated IP.

3. The best advantage of a dedicated IP is that if you haven shifted your domain to your hosts nameserver as yet they can test the site using the ip only.

4. I beleive there are some FTP server programs which allow for anonymous FTP hosting by host name rather than by IP. I'm not sure about this but I'll see if I can add more info.

In conclusion, dedicated or non-dedicated = not much of a difference. Hope this helps! :)

Regards,
Asher.

Wildcards are not a problem without a dedicated IP, we have several domains using wildcards.

You also do not need a dedicated IP to view your site while waiting for the domain DNS to update (seems to be a little known fact though)


The rest of the questions seem to be answered :)

Oh yeah it is possible thru vdirs :) That totally slipped my mind.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26203

Thanks bitserve for the link to the other thread -- I had tried to search the day I posted this, but it wasn't working.

I've found the responses to this thread and the other threads on this topic very helpful.

Thanks to all that have responded.
Karen

Unless you need a public FTP site or your own SSL cert, there really is no need for a dedicated IP anymore. And also most hosts allow you to preview your site through hostname.com/~yourusername before your DNS is updated, so this isn't a reason for a dedicated IP.

The only thing I can think of might be search engine positioning. Let's say site Y and site X share the same IP. Now let's say site Y spams a search engine. This used to result in the search engine banning that IP address, preventing site X from being listed even though they did nothing wrong.

However as nowadays most hosts share IP with many sites, most search engines are aware of this, and just ban domains and not IP addresses.

In other words, unless you want a public FTP site or an SSL cert, there really is no valid reason for a dedicated IP address.