Accessing Your Website via IP Address

While working on your website, you may find yourself looking to connect to the website via IP address. In this article, we will outline various reasons why you may be unable to visit your website via IP address alone. Bear in mind that the differences in access may depend on the account type you have selected in your service subscription.

Topics Include:

• Why Am I Unable to Access My Website via IP Address
  • Accessing Your Website Without A Domain Name

Why Am I Unable to Access My Website via IP Address?

• DNS Propagation– DNS changes to a domain may require 4-24 hours of domain propagation before the change is recognized on the internet. If you have made a change which affects an IP assignment (e.g. A record), then you will need to allow for the propagation time to complete before it is recognized on the internet.
  
• Addon domains, Aliases (Parked Domains), and Subdomains– cPanel accounts can have only one unique IP address assigned to each account.
  
  On a reseller, VPS or Dedicated server account, you can have multiple cPanel accounts, but each cPanel account can still have only one IP address assigned. cPanel accounts are capable of handling multiple domains. These domains are typically assigned as addon domains and aliases (parked domains) that share the IP address assigned to that cPanel account.
  
  You may also build a website that is coming from a subdomain. The sharing of the IP address to these multiple types is the reason that the IP address may not be accessing your website. If you want that domain to be identified with the IP address, then it would need to be the primary domain on that cPanel account.
  
• Domain Not Associated with IP address– There may be times when an assigned IP address is not appropriately assigned to the domain. If you are on a shared server and your primary domain (the domain used to create the cPanel account) is properly assigned, then you may need to speak with technical support in order to correct the issue.
  
  Users who have root access with their VPS or Dedicated server accounts may look in the appropriate configuration files to correct the issue as necessary. If you are not familiar with the configuration that needs to be edited then you should speak with support in order to properly set the configuration.
  
• Shared Servers– The most common reason that websites cannot be addressed through an IP address is because they are websites served from a shared server account where the domain is one of many under a single IP address. Shared server accounts include Business, Reseller or WordPress specific hosting plans. In this case, the domain cannot be addressed through the IP address because they do not have a unique IP address associated with the account.

Accessing Your Website Without a Domain Name

If you can’t access site through the IP there is another way to access the website – the temporary URL. Primary domains normally have a temporary URL assigned that can be found through the Account Management Panel (AMP). For information on using the Temp URL, please see Using Your Temporary URL.