Header or Name-based Virtual Hosting in Apache Web Server 1.3.34

To be able to host more than one domain name per available IP address, one has to configure his/her Apache Web server to properly handle requests to each domain and mimic a multiple server or multiple IP single server hosting enviromnent. This document details the process of configuring Apache Web server version 1.3.34 to host multiple domains on a single IP addresses. A hybrid of this procedure and that of hosting multiple domains on multiple IP addresses (IP-based Hosting) can also be implemented in setups where one would like share IP addresses among multiple domains.

Procedure

Configure your httpd.conf in apache to handle the IP address and hosted domains in a modified virtual hosting setup that points all the hosted domian names to the various folders on the server as requiredHere is sample configuration for section 3 of the httpd.conf file to implement Name-based virtual hosting in Apache Web server 1.3.34

#===============
Namevirtualhost 111.22.33.41:port

<VirtualHost 111.22.33.41:port>
DocumentRoot /www/domain
ServerName www.yourfirst.tld
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 111.22.33.41:port>
DocumentRoot /www/domainother
ServerName www.yourfirstother.tld
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 111.22.33.41:port>
DocumentRoot /www/lastdomain
ServerName www.yourlastother.tld
</VirtualHost>
#===============

Features and Benefits

Commercial hosting services rarely allocate individual IP addresses to individual clients in discount packages. This is the configuration that they use with some automation to enable to creationa nd modification of individual accounts on the fly. his setup will enable you to host a virtually limitless number of domains on the same server without having to purchase as many IP addresses.

Draw-backs

Some implementations of this setup (if all the websites are based on one IP address) can have some consequences in the ranking of the hosted websites by search engines. if you are however hosting multiple related domain names on one IP address, this will not have any negative SEO implications.