Most small businesses are fine with shared hosting plans until they find the traffic to their site has outdone the hosting plan they currently have. then it’s time to move to a dedicated server. What a lot of people don’t know is where that server has been or shall I say who has been on it previous to them.

Its important to know who you are buying a dedicated server from and things to check for when making the purchase. Servers go through several hands sometimes which can be a problem if you have some old hardware thats run ragged, but not too often a problem as most companies will upgrade over a period of time. The problem really lies with the IP assigned to that server.

When an IP has been assigned to a server most likely it also has been used before you, so it is extremely important to check right away after getting the plan if that IP has been Blacklisted in anyway.

There was a previous article where we talked about how to get off email blacklists, but you really shouldn’t have to if you have a new server right? Wrong. You may come to find that your IP has been blacklisted and this could be serious if you have transferred everything over to your new server without checking.

Thus my recommendation is to always check before you just buy any server. Ask lots of questions to your host and make sure you get a good IP or this can have drastic consequences to your business.