Overview
An IP address is a unique number that identifies a device on a network, similar to a phone number or street address. DreamHost automatically assigns an IP address to every active server, service, and domain, and this article explains the two IP address versions (IPv4 and IPv6) and how to find or add an IP address for your site.
Background
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a unique number assigned to every device on the Internet. Like a telephone number or street address, an IP address identifies networked devices and defines their location on a network like the Internet.
There are currently two IP address versions:
- IPv4 — The most widely deployed (and historical) protocol. This type appears as 4 groups of decimal digits (e.g., 192.0.2.235). DreamHost automatically assigns an IPv4 address to all active servers, services, and domains.
- IPv6 — A new protocol that appears as 8 groups of hexadecimal digits (e.g., 2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7334). IPv6 was created to manage the growth of the Internet and allows for more addresses than IPv4. DreamHost currently offers free Unique IPv6 addresses.
How to manage an IP address
The following sections explain how to manage a few commonly used IP address features.
How do I find my website's IP address?
See this article for instructions on finding the IP address of your website.
How do I add a Unique IP address to my fully hosted domain?
If necessary, you can add a single Unique IP address to any fully hosted domain in the panel. This applies to the A record for your website URL.
Many other IP addresses are automatically created when you host a website. To update those, you would need to create custom DNS records instead.
See also
DreamHost links
Third-party links