Dedicated IP worth it or not?

[sdarby]

So I have a couple business domains and am looking for a simple solution to manage both businesses, their blogs and a handful of personal sites/blogs/kid's domains using the MultiSite feature of WordPress and MarketPress for the duo of businesses.

I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the cost to add a dedicated IP to my hosting package with BlueHost and if it'll really do what I want which is let me admin all the sites & blogs from one place but still allow both my kids to admin their own sites too...teaching them to do their own updates, themes, site management but I keep an eye on the bigger stuff like spam and comments they are only 10 & 12!

Basically I'm trying to find an all in one easy to maintain system for my patterns site and affiliate based site via MarketPress instead of the hard to maintain post system I have where I'm constantly logging in just to update and never seem to post new content.

Any opinions on the dedicated IP, MultiSite and MarketPress are welcome! I need to know if I'm going off the deep end and should stick with what I have which sorta works or go for it and move into the 2nd decade of the 21st century!

Oh and bug me if that is all as clear as mud I'll keep trying to explain it!

[Jively]

I'm assuming you have a shared hosting account, which is why they want to charge you for a dedicated IP, it might be worth considering looking at a VPS solution (Virtual Private Server) - they come quite cheap these days (Look at SliceHost or Linode for example) and they will give you a dedicated IP by default, meaning you can set your site up whichever way you want.

If you want to teach your kids about making stuff for the web it also means you could give them their own VPS shell accounts so they can tinker more.

What you won't get is a nice CPanel though, so there';s a bit more effort involved - but I'll tell you now it's incredibly rewarding ;-)

Thanks,
Martin

[cmpe]

Hi Sue,

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, the only technical reason why you would need a dedicated IP address is if you are planning to purchase an SSL certificate to install for your site.

With that said, I personally don't have much experience with either MarketPress and MultiSite but I can't think of a reason why either of these WP addons would require a dedicated IP address to function.

For your kids, you may want to get a reseller account which would allow you to create as many hosting accounts as you want and these accounts would be totally independent of each other. So your kids can play around with the accounts and manage their own site without impacting your sites.

[Zita]

Hi,

You can check the Advantages and disadvantages of Dedicated IP hosting @ http://hostingserviceindia.wordpress...a-web-hosting/

I hope you get clear idea after reading this article..

[RedScooter]

I am not sure if you really need a dedicated IP address to run MultiSite on Bluehost. With most hosts this is unnecessary, but I can see why they might want to require it (you will be taking up more of the server resources with multisite than with a plain site). I would try setting it up on your current account - add a subdomain to your primary domain as the guinea pig, and turn MultiSite on, and see if it works. If it fails, then yep, you probably need to shell out the extra money.

As far as your store, you would only need the dedicated IP address if you want to enable SSL security on your site. I'm not familiar with MarketPress in particular but most WordPress shopping carts will allow you to integrate with PayPal Standard, which would not require a dedicated IP or SSL because visitors get redirected to PayPal's own secure server to actually pay.

My only concern with MultiSite would be getting hacked - if one site gets attacked then all of your sites might go down. If you have them all installed separately (which you can do no problem with no dedicated I.P.) then you can just isolate the infected site and fix it, and not lose any money on other sites. That said, it might be worth the slightly higher risk to you just from a time management standpoint, being able to keep everything updated. And just keeping the sites up to date is half the battle in preventing your sites from being hacked.

[ScriptMan]

I have never played wit WP MU. I would think the master admin would have that control.

If you want to manage a collection of regular sites from one central location a reseller account allows you to do that through WeHostManager (WHM) and still allows users access to their own control panel using cPanel.

If I misunderstood the question, I apologize in advance.

[RedScooter]

I'm under the impression she just wants one place (in WP) to log in and install WordPress updates. Her current host would allow cPanel access to any/all of the domains, but if she wanted to let the kids into cPanel she probably would want a reseller account so they would be restricted to just managing their own domain and not playing with mom's sites.

[sdarby]

I really do just want one place to log in, do updates, swap sites and do posts.. a "one stop shop" that controls everything. The kids only work in their own back end so they would be controlling widgets and themes and doing posts and such while I keep an eye on spam and other admin functions. They aren't old enough to do cPanel level stuff in a hosting account.. heck 95% of the CPanel is Greek to even me! I have them using WP because it's easy and they have had the domain since my eldest was 5! It's a collection of their writing and a way for them to see how they have really improved over time in addition to being a way of getting them to learn to do book reports, creative writing, graphic arts and use a computer in general beyond web surfing and games! It's also how they earn time to surf the web, watch movies and tv and play games.
I like the idea of doing a test with one domain and a subdomain to see what happens and if it works then going live. I'm going to try that this weekend.
We will see what happens with that! Thanks everyone I'll add a results post soon hopefully with good news!

[RedScooter]

Sue - make sure you put the subdomain on the "primary" domain on your account. From what I read it will only work on that domain. Good luck! I love your idea of having your kids earn time to do fun things by blogging - I think I will try that when mine get old enough!

[sdarby]

OK I managed to enable the multi-site WOOO HOOO as I don't do PHP but am not afraid of code... my first site was pure HTML and over 100 pages hand coded and it even validated but that was at the turn of the century!
Anyway, now I'm trying to figure out the sub-domains and if I can do it for my other domains too all in one place without messing anything up... so far the main site still works perfectly! Well, I do have to re-enable the plugins but that comes with time and making some decisions as to IF I even need them anymore!
I think I'm going to go do some more backup work of the subs... hmmm might change my doll domain's subs to something other than "blog" and "weblog" maybe "news" and "Tutorials" and setup some redirects. WOW I have a LOT to think on here... If I have to setup separate networks for each domain that won't be as bad either... I want to combine a couple of other subs into a main site or sub-domain for simplicity's sake and just never got around to it. Now doing this for my kid's domain might be more tricky as my daughter's site would end up the "super"... hmmm maybe....WOW what a learning curve!
I may be nuts for trying this now too... the bosses are threatening me with Share Point Management & Admin duties at work! WOO HOOO!

RedScooter... how old are the kids? I started my kids at 5 with simple sentences and poking at the keys to write using Open Office and then I did the posting work and showed them the end result, encouraged family to comment and the cycle of "can I write today?" started. Now 10 & 12 they type fairly well and are learning how to do screen shots, graphic editing, uploading and their own maintenance! One wants to start doing video for his favorite game even but I have to learn the video stuff first! Heck I haven't even uploaded to YouTube myself yet! ;-)

[alemcherry]

Only reason for dedicated IP should be SSL. I don't understand how WPMU can be better managed with dedicated IP. You are probably not going in the right direction.

One dedicated IP shouldn't really be that costly - normally $2/m or so. How much are they charging?

[RedScooter]

Originally Posted by sdarby

OK I managed to enable the multi-site WOOO HOOO as I don't do PHP but am not afraid of code...

Awesome! Glad to hear you got it working. Did you have to upgrade with Bluehost? (Curious as I use them too.)

Originally Posted by sdarby

RedScooter... how old are the kids?

One is three and one is due in January. My 3-year-old is getting good with the iPad (although you have to watch him or he'll click on ads and delete apps) but since hubby and I both do moneymaking work on our computers I am waiting until we can get a new one. Then the old one will go to the kiddos.

[sdarby]

Originally Posted by RedScooter

Awesome! Glad to hear you got it working. Did you have to upgrade with Bluehost? (Curious as I use them too.)

Nope no upgrade just a couple of PHP & htaccess edits and it was up and working well...I'm still having minor issues with redirects but so far it's pretty smooth. I'll figure it out eventually!

One is three and one is due in January. My 3-year-old is getting good with the iPad (although you have to watch him or he'll click on ads and delete apps) but since hubby and I both do moneymaking work on our computers I am waiting until we can get a new one. Then the old one will go to the kiddos.

When the kid does get his own machine lock it down solid LOL... you might look into something like KidPix and let him post pictures created to a subdomain for fun....can learn a lot playing with programs like that. My youngest has taken to a computer like a duck to water... but then again I had a little program called BabyType that he loved. I let my kids also chat with their grandmother long distance by Alphabet Book..... find the letters on the page....poor mom didn't know I was in the kitchen making dinner while my kids were busy typing apple, bee, cat.... LOL :-)

Anyway, it's going ok with the conversion... I have a LOT to do tho! I'm going to try to focus on it over the next month and for just my domains right now... I'm leaving the kids domain alone for now. I'm not ready for adding users yet!

[sdarby]

Originally Posted by alemcherry

Only reason for dedicated IP should be SSL. I don't understand how WPMU can be better managed with dedicated IP. You are probably not going in the right direction.

One dedicated IP shouldn't really be that costly - normally $2/m or so. How much are they charging?

The dedicated IP is actually only recommended for larger e-commerce type sites that are on the network so not a requirement and so after a lot of research I decided against the extra $3 a month until I really need it... hence my question... I wanted to know for sure that it was required before adding more expenses... I'm on an extreme shoestring!

[simplyamazing12]

Based on your usage and description, I don't think a dedicated IP address is worth it at the moment. You just don't need it especially for SSL. Also keep in mind a strong alternative is VPS which really fits your needs currently a lot more.

[numaniaw]

Originally Posted by sdarby

So I have a couple business domains and am looking for a simple solution to manage both businesses, their blogs and a handful of personal sites/blogs/kid's domains using the MultiSite feature of WordPress and MarketPress for the duo of businesses.

I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the cost to add a dedicated IP to my hosting package with BlueHost and if it'll really do what I want which is let me admin all the sites & blogs from one place but still allow both my kids to admin their own sites too...teaching them to do their own updates, themes, site management but I keep an eye on the bigger stuff like spam and comments they are only 10 & 12!

Basically I'm trying to find an all in one easy to maintain system for my patterns site and affiliate based site via MarketPress instead of the hard to maintain post system I have where I'm constantly logging in just to update and never seem to post new content.

Any opinions on the dedicated IP, MultiSite and MarketPress are welcome! I need to know if I'm going off the deep end and should stick with what I have which sorta works or go for it and move into the 2nd decade of the 21st century!

Oh and bug me if that is all as clear as mud I'll keep trying to explain it!

A dedicated ip address is 100% necessary for different needs.For example, if you want to install shared or trusted SSL certificate( like Geotrust), you won't be able to do this without a dedicated ip address.

In case you have a reseller account and want to use your private DNS, you will also need dedicated ip addresses to set for your nameservers.

If the server ip address is blacklisted ( by Spamcop or Sorbs for example), you can ask the support team to change the mail service ip address for your domain into a dedicated ip and thus your domain mail service will be working properly.

[dooma]

I think Dedicated IP is very important for shared and reseller hosting , You would need a dedicated IP address if you need services like private SSL, private name servers or other services that can not run from a shared IP address.

[numaniaw]

Originally Posted by dooma

I think Dedicated IP is very important for shared and reseller hosting , You would need a dedicated IP address if you need services like private SSL, private name servers or other services that can not run from a shared IP address.

Private ip is not only important for shared and reseller plans, but also rather important for VPS and dedicated servers.

[adsonmycar]

Keep in mind that hosting companies won't give dedicated IPs as easy as in the past. You will need to have a solid reasoning.

[numaniaw]

Originally Posted by adsonmycar

Keep in mind that hosting companies won't give dedicated IPs as easy as in the past. You will need to have a solid reasoning.

Some companies don't want to give free ip addresses when the user is asking for many ips ( at least 10). In this case you will need to find the reason why you need the ips .

If you for example need one ip address, the hosting company can give it for free without any explanations.

This is an example of the ip form which the hosting companies fill in for Caro datacenter:

JUSTIFICATION SECTION

1. ** List all IP addresses issued to your organization. Separate multiple ranges by a comma.


Existing IP Address Range(s):
Host Range:

2. ** Enter the total amount of addresses issued to your customers.

Assigned: 8

3. ** Provide internal IP address utilization information. List IP addresses used by your website, databases, etc.


Internal: 10.32.4.30

4. ** Enter the amount of unassigned or available IP address space.


Unassigned:

5. ** List the number of IP addresses that utilize each type of service listed below.

Type of Service:

Shared Web Hosting:

Dedicated Servers:

Resellers: 4

Name Servers: 4

Virtual Private Servers:

Internet Relay Chat (IRC):

Co-location:

Other (please specify):

3 AND 6-MONTH PROJECTION SUBSECTION

6. ** List the number of IP addresses that will be needed for each type of service for the next 3 to 6 months.

Host Projections:

3-Month 6-Month

Shared Web Hosting:

Dedicated Servers:

Resellers:1

Name Servers:2

Virtual Private Servers:

Internet Relay Chat (IRC):

Co-location:

Other (please specify):

7. ** Provide any additional information you would like Carolina Internet to consider for this IP request.

Additional Information:

IP REQUEST SECTION

8. ** REQUIRED. Allocations are made based upon the 3-month

** projection (assignments are based on CIDR ranges).

** /29 = 3 usable IP addresses

Amount of IP Addresses Requested (in CIDR):

9. ** REQUIRED. Enter the username found under the "Client Info" section in my.carohosting.com at the top of the page.

Username:

10. ** REQUIRED. Enter the primary IP address that this request if for (if available).
fastnext

Primary IP Address:

11. ** If you are requesting a /26 or shorter prefix, please list the IP addresses of at least two name servers to handle reverse DNS requests. Do not provide hostnames. Duplicate field name to specify additional servers.

11. ** OPTIONAL- Prefixes of /26 and shorter are allowed to handle all PTR requests for that ip space. If you would like to be authoritative for this range please list the ip addresses of at least two name servers you would like to handle these requests. Do not provide hostnames. Duplicate field name to specify additional servers.