How many internet ip adresses can a single server serve?

I have heard of these seo companies that have big old computer rooms full of servers. What are all those computers doing?

My theory is that they are hosting their own domains/doorways/what have you, and they need a fairly large arsenal of servers because there is a limit, like maybe, 256, internet ip adresses that a single server can serve. I just guessed 256 cuz, it's 2 to the something power, but is there a true limit?

Can someone point me to an explanation of how this "host multiple internet ips" thing works?

Thanks

thomas.

 

If I understand your question, the answer is that the servers actually have very few IP's per server and host multiple domains per IP since an IP is a fixed cost. The more domains you put on one IP, the less the IP costs the host provider. A low end shared hosting server may have as many as 500 domains on a single PC. It can be a little tricky, but it works.

 

Mopacfan, why don't you just answer my question, you are forcing me to work, I HATE work

Anyway, I did some additional research.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q="multiple+ip+addresses"+seo&btnG=Search

We got

"How to set up multiple Ips on a webserver"

http://www.jimworld.com/apps/webmas...d/thread::1079536194/forum::seo-professional/

They say it's not very common but it can be done:

"Although you can have multiple IP addresses for multiple websites on the same webserver, (it's called a multi-homed server) it is very common to have multiple websites hosted on a single server having a single IP address. Many hosting companies do it this way. (Actually it's not the web site that's associated with the IP address, it's the domain name.) When someone enters www.yourdomain.com into a browser that request goes to an Internet nameserver and the nameserver returns your IP address to your browser that, in turn, uses your IP to connect to your computer.

At your end you use the host headers within the webserver software to sort out which web site the visitor has requested . The web server software then responds with the appropriate web site page."

Another good thread is at

http://forums.seochat.com/archive/t-12779

Lots of interesting stuff, about hilltop, is ip filter already in place, that kind of thing. Excerpt:

"Ask or search at www.webhostingtalk.com (http://www.webhostingtalk.com)
There are some hosts that offer multiple IPs/different C classes on one account. I have seen threads there in the past but right now am blocked by websense at work from visiting that site."

Okay.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=194323

"Last I heard DN is not accepting new customers. They are in another expansive phase. However you could find several hosts who have boxes there and/or at NAC and host with them as well as other hosts around the globe. In fact I'm sure you will find many hosts with access to different C classes.

Trying to do this in one large DC would be a mistake IMHO. Notwithstanding the fact that all your nameservers would be located in the same geographical area, I do not think your explanation will meet ARIN justification. Getting boxes in different DC's ensures different Class C's, redunancy, and keeps you from putting all your marbles in one basket."

Okay... what is DN? DC? ARIN?

Well, I am beginning to feel behind the learning curve.

But for you do it yourselfers out here, here's a possible, perhaps speculative, way to do it in apache:

http://www.linuxforum.com/apache/misc/vif-info.html

"This material is originally from John Ioannidis (ji@polaris.ctr.columbia.edu)
I have condensed it some and applied some corrections for SunOS 4.1.x
courtesy of Chuck Smoko (csmoko@relay.nswc.navy.mil).Bob Baggerman (bob@bizweb.com) 12 Jan 94
John Ionnidis writes:This is a topic that comes up once in a while on comp.protocols.tcp-ip
and other newsgroups. The question is, how to get a machine with one
network interface to respond to more than one IP addresses.I have a solution than might suit you. For my doctoral work (there's
a paper about it in this year's ('91) SIGCOMM, also available for
anonymous FTP from cs.columbia.edu:/pub/ji/sigcomm*.ps.Z), I've
developed what I call the "Virtual Interface" (VIF). To the networking
code, it looks like an interface............ "

Not convinced this would work, didn't really read it, but maybe some curious DPer will look into this more thoroughly.

 

Good post ... good read ... nice summaries and links

 

Yeah well, so I stumble across this thing
******
"Do you know ,that even we have many different "Class C address pools", they will be still propagate through one Autonomous System?

It is not a problem?"
*****

I scratch my head and groan. I am beginning to think, trying to put one over google is more trouble than it is worth.

But I keep plugging away, cause that's the man that I am.

At this point I haven't yet figured out what an autonomous network, but getting there.

Let's say we suspected digitalpoint.com of having a side business where Shawn is putting together an IBLN (Independent BackLinking Network) a la Britecorp or pradnetwork

You can get an ip from a domain name at

http://www.hcidata.co.uk/host2ip.htm

digitalpoint.com->216.9.35.56

Now if we saw a bunch of 216.9.35.XXX that might look suspicious.

But what is this "autonomous network" they are talking about? What is ARIN? Let us just go to the ARIN whois

http://www.arin.net/whois/

This is not your grandpa's whois. This is whois on steroids. This is ARIN whois.

Searching on the domain name doesn't work, but searching on the ip address gets us

Search results for: 216.9.35.56

NetHere Inc. NETHERE-3 (NET-216-9-32-0-1)
216.9.32.0 - 216.9.47.255
Digital Point Solutions NTHR-DIGITAL-POINT (NET-216-9-35-48-1)
216.9.35.48 - 216.9.35.63

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2004-09-09 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.


It seems like digitalpoint... or NetHere... uh, is NetHere Digitalpoint? I think it is... Yeah, well, it seems like Shawn got his self a whole bunch of class c networks! Dirty man!

Heh heh, I am not really accusing shawn of building a Multiple Class-C IBLN, just pretending to be google somehow rooting out those who would be sleazy enough to do such a thing.

Anyway, I am now beginning to think that NetHereInc/DigitalPoint is the "autonomous system." But it would be nice if someone with more experience than me could confirm that.

Pretty neat I think!



thomas.

 

Well in IIS, you assign host header names to a web site so you can put multiple domains on a single IP. When assigning host header names, you want to be sure to assign the domain name with and without the www prefix so it can be found either way.

 

Hi Mopacfan,

Not quite on topic of the thread but seemingly useful nonetheless... ok... how do you assign host header names? In apache? In IIS?

Can you provide a link to an explanation, or a walkthrough step by step?

thomas.

 

This is a very interesting topic/thread - I will be back - do not have the time today - as it impinges upon some questions on c-class that I have been raising

 

Here are some resources for setting up host header names: (this is all MS stuff btw)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308163
http://www.visualwin.com/host-header/

Now keep in mind that if you offer ftp access for your sites, you will not be able to set the ftp up normally since ftp is generally set up by IP address. It's quite a bit more complicated, but doable nonetheless. Here is some information that will help you when setting up your ftp accounts:

http://www.olyolyoxenfree.com/2004/08/error-550-cannot-find-file-spcified.htm

 

A Good SEO operator, who I am not in direct competition with is : lapworld.de. 212.227.118.77

ARIN is wrong regional registrar to be using actually, should be using RIPE to dig up more info.

http://ripe.net/perl/whois?form_typ...g=&searchtext=212.227.118.77&do_search=Search

inetnum: 212.227.118.0 - 212.227.118.255
netname: SCHLUND-NET
.......
route: 212.227.0.0/16
descr: SCHLUND-PA-2
origin: AS8560

More info on this last AS at...

http://ripe.net/perl/whois?form_type=simple&full_query_string=&searchtext=AS8560&do_search=Search

as-block: AS8192 - AS9215
aut-num: AS8560

Now let's look at some "seo satellites" of the main sites... found through

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=link:www.lapworld.de&btnG=Search
computerspiele4u.de
linux-laptop-forum.de

Anything? Are they on the same c block? Or the same AS?

Computerspiele4u.de 212.227.118.77, that's the same ip.
linux-laptop-forum.de 62.67.235.172

Let's look closer at linux-laptop-forum...

http://ripe.net/perl/whois?form_typ...g=&searchtext=62.67.235.172+&do_search=Search

inetnum: 62.67.235.0 - 62.67.235.255
.....
route: 62.67.0.0/16
descr: Level 3 DE RIPE block
origin: AS3356
.....
route: 62.67.0.0/16
descr: Level 3 DE RIPE block
origin: AS9057


So, this is an IP that leads us to two ASes... neither of which is suspicious in any way.

So, different ip, different c class, different AS.

And the moral is... ???

There is no moral. I just thought that might be helpful for anybody that wants to poke around ARIN like me.



thomas.