fake virtual web hosting

[bubblefairy]

Hi,

I recently signed up with a web hosting company (perhaps too quickly) and was wondering if someone can tell me how I can tell whether I am using a virtual web server or fake virtual web server. And if I am using a fake virtual web server, could this affect search engine ranking? Let's say someone does something to get their site banned, wouldn't that ban all the sites using the same company since it's all one I.P. Also, does the spider see it is one big site?

Thanks in advance.

[theperlyking]

Hello bubblefairy, welcome to WebmasterWorld.

The way I check is to ping (in msdos) the site,

e,g ping www.mydomain.com in dos it will say something like

Pinging www.mydomain.com [xxx.xxx.48.12] with 32 bytes of data:

Then put the ip address in your browser (i.e xxx.xxx.48.12 in the above example) and see what site comes up. If its mydomain.com then its a unique IP, otherwise you will probably get the hosting companies page.

Theres probably a less convoluted way of doing it but thats what I do :)

For spider purposes there is no disadvantage to being on a virtual host.

[Drastic]

>...no disadvantage to being on a virtual host

Might want to take a look at BT's post in this thread [webmasterworld.com].

[theperlyking]

Whoa, hadnt seen that. I had read an earlier set of posts saying it doesnt have an effect.

[bubblefairy]

Thanks for the responses guys. O.K. - I did that, and all I got is a 404 in the browser. However, when I put the I.P. in ws_ftp, only my pages came up. So does that mean it's my own I.P.?

[Drastic]

Just to be sure, type the IP into the browser address bar, and refresh it a few times. If no other site ever shows, you should be on a dedicated IP. That doesn't mean your host won't share it in the future, however. To find out for sure, just email your host, and ask if your site is hosted on a dedicated or shared IP. That should clarify it for you, for future reference.

Welcome to the forums, BTW.