791 Websites Share FresheVenture.com’s IP Address!

You’ve probably wondered whether or not you should purchase shared or dedicated hosting for your website. To be honest, shared hosting has always worked fine for my purposes, so I never really felt the need to purchase dedicated hosting – that is until today…

Every web server has an IP Address. An IP Address is used by search engines to find websites on the Internet. If you use shared hosting, your web server’s IP Address not only applies to your website, but every other website on the server. If you purchase dedicated hosting, your website will be the only one connected to your IP Address.

Why Does This Matter?

Shared hosting can make your website load REALLY SLOOOOOOW. I noticed this about FresheVenture.com. It just seems to load slower than I would like. I figured it was due to all of the WordPress plugins I was using, so I tried to utilize the WP Super Cache plugin to help present static pages to my visitors, but I haven’t really seen a difference in speed.

I knew that shared hosting meant I was sharing a web server with other websites, but I had no idea how many. Well, this morning I received an email from my Axandra Search Engine Facts Newsletter that clarified this for me. They offer a free Reverse IP Lookup tool on their website that shows you exactly how many websites you’re sharing your web server with. I tried it and was SHOCKED!

791! Let me say that again… 791 other websites reside on my web server! No wonder my website is so slow!

So, how does shared hosting work? Which Websites Load First?

Basically, it’s first come first served. Your web server loads web pages in the order in which a request for the page was received. So, if you visit your home page, you might be 100th in line to load a web page as the other websites on your server also have page load requests. (The term “load” is used to describe the process of requesting a web page from a web server. The request is automatically made when you click on a link or visit a web page.)

Here’s how Axandra puts it:

“The web server delivers the web pages in the order it receives the requests. If there are more requests to the other websites on your server, the visitors of your website will have to wait before the server sends them your pages.”

Find Out How Many Websites Share Your Server

Visit Axandra’s free Reverse IP Lookup tool and enter your domain. You will be provided with all of the domains that share your web server.

What’s My Next Step?

I’m getting out of dodge and onto my own server ASAP! Network Solutions offers Virtual Private Systems starting at $40.00/month. Their VPS Standard includes:

• Disk Space: 10 GB
• Monthly Data Transfer: 500 GB
• Guaranteed RAM: 512 MB
• Software: Parallels™
• Max. Managed Domains: 10
• POP E-Mail Accounts: 50

What Is VPS?

VPS essentially partitions physical servers into multiple “virtual” servers, giving each the ability to run its own operating system and applications. They can also be rebooted independently without affecting another Virtual Private System.

Here’s a little info from Network Solutions’ website:

“VPS hosting offers larger amounts of monthly data transfer compared to shared hosting, giving users the ability to run multiple high traffic Web sites on a single server. Because VPS customers do not share software, it offers the same reliability and security as dedicated Web hosting at a fraction of the cost.”

Dedicated hosting can get pricey, so this may be the way to go.

Before I make the change, I want to hear from you! Have you found FresheVenture.com to be slow? What dedicated or VPS options do you recommend?

Topic Tags:

dedicated hosting, ip address, network solutions, shared hosting, virtual private systems