I'm switching hosts and with my old host I had a dedicated IP with only 8 domains. The new host is a shared IP with 176 other domains. I know the # IPs is not the same thing as # of domains on a server, so I'm assuming it won't affect server loads, etc. But, are there potential issues with sharing an IP with so many other sites?

If those sites are spammy, can the IP get blacklisted and affect my domain, especially email?

I did a reverse IP check and most were normal, but I did see some that were those sites that just had adsense ads on the page.

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In extremely spammy cases yes entire IP blocks can be banned, but it is rare. Adsense does not make a website spammy.

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Not good. Sharing the same server resources with 176 other virtual domains is bad news. It will definitely overload the shared processing resources at some point. All it takes is for one person to write a script with an endless loop in it by mistake and your RAM is sucked up in a hurry.

And yes, there are several potential issues with the Internet Protocol address being blocked, not so much with http (page delivery) necessarily, but the smtp (mail) could very well be eventually blacklisted in lots of places including everything from educational institutions to Net watch-dog groups.

While you don't necessarily need your own dedicated IP address, surely you can find a better provider out there who doesn't try to make an exhorbitant amount of money by jamming 100+ domains into each server on a tiny block of addresses. It's just a real headache that can be easily and ecomomically avoided.

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On a similar note...an excerpt from an interview with Google engineer Craig Silverstein:
5) Google and IP address.
by Anonymous Coward

Why in this day and age does google continue to penalize sites that are virtual hosted? With ip addresses becoming harder to get/justify every day why does google discount the relevance of links that don't come from a unique ip address. Please don't just deny it, I think the Internet community deserves an explanation.

Craig:

I can't just deny it? What are my other choices? [] Actually, Google handles virtually hosted domains and their links just the same as domains on unique IP addresses. If your ISP does virtual hosting correctly, you'll never see a difference between the two cases. We do see a small percentage of ISPs every month that misconfigure their virtual hosting, which might account for this persistent misperception--thanks for giving me the chance to dispel a myth!


Very good point...and keep in mind that a dedicated IP for your domain doesn't necessarily mean that you get a mail server on that ip. The mail server could still be shared.

Good hosting is hard to find!

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