Every website, blog and related web application needs hosting services to remain public and accessible over the web.  It allows web visitors to access any web resource easily and comfortably. However, the choice of hosting package may differs as per the nature of the website or blog. For example: if a website contains secure transactions and heavy database interactions then it usually adopts dedicated hosting services, otherwise it may go for shared or VPS hosting.

As this article focuses IP blocking on shared hosting, so i would like to elaborate its reasons and precautions to the readers. But before knowing the reasons of the IP blocking i would like to explain shared, vps and dedicated hosting in short lines, as it may give you a clear picture of this article.

So let’s understand the Shared, VPS & Dedicated Hosting in brief.

1. Shared Hosting: This hosting is very common and popular among entrepreneur’s, start-ups, bloggers & small business. As this hosting supports shared server resources with limitations such as strict firewall rules for all hosted domains. This hosting is affordable and simple way to get started over the web.
2. Virtual Private Server(VPS) Hosting: VPS Hosting is similar to Dedicated hosting with few restrictions. Under this hosting you can easily configure your software scripts, customize hosted domains, set size limits specifically for hosted domains and many more settings. This hosting is best for developed or underdeveloped online businesses to host their domains under this hosting. It is not cheap as shared hosting but many leading hosting providers offers discounts for this hosting at regular intervals. So anyone can experience the Dedicated hosting under VPS hosting.
3. Dedicated Hosting: Under this hosting you can fully experience the magic of the dedicated server. Here you can manage all server resources, permissions, security rules and many more other resources/settings. Dedicated servers are very powerful in terms of security and speed. This type of hosting is expensive than shared and vps hosting. Many hosting providers also provide dedicated managers for such services.

Note: Above mentioned hosting services may differ in services among hosting providers so kindly confirm hosting services before choosing right one for your websites.

Reasons of IP Blocking:

Blocking of IP under shared hosting is a very common issue these days as users violates strict firewall rules many times. As resulted sometimes users faces total blackout of their website or any other specific website from their computer(but not from other computer). The common reason of such blackout is that your external IP address might be blocked by server firewall due to violating its strict rules. So let’s know about these reasons to minimize such IP blocking at regular intervals.

Note: Firewall is a set of devices which designed to protect networks from unauthorized access. Many hosting providers sets such device to provide maximum security to their customers.

a) Consecutive Login Failures:

Login failures in C-panel, Webmail and FTP is the common and biggest reason of ip blocking for specific computer. Many hosting provider sets the limits for login attempts to avoid unauthorized access to their customer services. You can specifically ask your hosting provider to know about login limits for your services. So to avoid blocking of ip for this reason, always try to remember or enter correct/valid login details for your services.

c) IP changes frequently:

This could be the reason of blocking of your ip for specific domain as hosting providers are very serious about spam and unethical access to their services. Do not change your IP very frequently next time to avoid such blockage.

d) Failed FTP/SSH Logins:

Failed FTP/SSH logins on shared server is a very frustrating reason among developers and users. Many hosting providers allows specific port to use these services, so always contact your hosting support for valid settings, if you are new to these services and try to enter appropriate login details provided by hosting providers.

e) Frequent clicking activity on Email Applications:

This reason is associated with the checking of sending and receiving of emails for specific domain..If user clicks on “send and receive” button of Outlook or Thunderbird(email applications) at very frequent intervals then the chance of ip blocking is very high in this case. So always try not to click on “send and receive” button of Outlook, Thunderbird or any other email applications frequently.

f) Mod-Security Firewall:

This is a very strict rule under shared hosting as It aims at shielding web applications from known and unknown attacks, such as SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting, path traversal attacks, etc. So to avoid this reason, you need to clean your code logic(web application code) as per standards.

g) Bulk File Uploading(via CuteFTP, Filezilla):

If you are uploading your website content via any FTP software then you need extra care against bulk uploading via FTP software’s. As such software’s authenticates every time when any file download or upload happens.

Tip: Users are advised to enter correct login details every time to avoid ip blocking. Always monitor your computer, website and network for any suspicious activity, which could lead ip blocking issues.

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