IP based hosting vs name based hosting
Originally Posted
by apache.org
IP-based virtual hosts use the IP address of the connection to
determine the correct virtual host to serve. Therefore you need
to have a separate IP address
for each host. With name-based virtual hosting, the server relies on the
client to report the hostname as part of the HTTP headers. Using
this technique, many
different hosts can share the same IP address.
Name-based virtual hosting is usually simpler, since you need only configure
your DNS server to map each hostname to the correct IP address and then configure
the Apache HTTP Server to recognize the different hostnames. Name-based virtual
hosting also eases the demand for scarce IP addresses. Therefore you should
use name-based virtual hosting unless there is a specific reason to choose
IP-based virtual hosting. Some reasons why you might consider using IP-based
virtual hosting:
Some ancient clients are not compatible with name-based virtual hosting.
For name-based virtual hosting to work, the client must send the HTTP Host
header. This is required by HTTP/1.1, and is implemented by all modern HTTP/1.0
browsers as an extension. If you need to support obsolete clients and still
use name-based virtual hosting, a possible technique is discussed at the
end of this document.
Name-based virtual hosting cannot be used with SSL secure servers because of
the nature of the SSL protocol.
Some operating systems and network equipment implement bandwidth management
techniques that cannot differentiate between hosts unless they are on separate
IP addresses.
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