E-commerce is incredibly popular these days, especially with the coronavirus epidemic making it unsafe for many people to visit a traditional brick and mortar stores. Online customer spending increased 44% in 2020, and the number could easily be even higher this year. It’s little wonder that modern often entrepreneurs see online shops as their best option for success.
Naturally, starting an online business follows many of the same steps as starting a traditional business, such as identifying your target audience, deciding which products and services are worth selling, and coming up with a marketing plan and brand image. For an online business, however, you also need to worry about having a secure network and reliable way to host your site. Consider MyTellTale, known for selling the Girlfriend Collective products as an example. They sell lightweight and trendy activewear like sports bras, leggings, and much more. Their site is available at all times, and they provide customers with safe and convenient ways to shop. You need to ensure that your online business can promise the same.
One of the best ways to do this is to secure IPv4 addresses. Here is some detailed information on what those are and exactly how they can improve your business.
What is IPv4?
IPv4 is the fourth generation of Internet Protocol (IP). An IP address is a collection of internet numbers that identify a specific device that connects to the network. Shared IP addresses can also identify particular websites. While IPv6 is the next version of Internet Protocol set to replace v4 in the future, the complexities of IPv6 have delayed its mass adoption, and most websites and devices still use IPv4.
This protocol routes web traffic in the different regions of the world using the regional internet registry (RIR). These regions include ARIN (Canada and U.S.), APNIC (Asia/Pacific region), AFRINIC (Africa), LACNIC (Latin America and Caribbean Islands), and RIPE NCC (Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia). Each region has its own IPv4 addresses that it uses to identify its websites and devices that connect.
The biggest problem with the system is that IPv4 address space is simply running out. These days, most people connect to the internet using a variety of devices including PCs, smartphones, digital assistants, and more. Advancements to the internet of things (IoT) also means that businesses are taking up more address space than ever before to track shipments and maintain safety. If you want to ensure that your business has IPv4 address blocks to use, you’ll need to secure them.
How can you secure IPv4?
The best way to ensure that you can always host your site and provide security to your users is to buy IPv4 address blocks on the secondary market. A reputable broker of IPv4 blocks can help you secure addresses in the ARIN registry or wherever else you need. While simply having the addresses is a great start, good IPv4 brokers will go further and offer additional advantages.
For starters, they can thoroughly research all IPv4 addresses they acquire to ensure that their reputations are good. Unfortunately, many addresses in the American registry and beyond are on reputation blacklists. This can occur when an address is associated with fraud, spamming, or other undesirable activities. If you purchase IP addresses on such a list, your site will have a difficult time ranking in search engine results pages. The best brokers can scrub your blocks clean before selling them, so you can rest assured that your online business only uses the best.
They’ll also help guide you through the entire transfer process, so you won’t have to deal with any complications. By securing address space for your online business now, you’re ensuring that you have a future to expand. Even better, thanks to the scarcity of IPv4, you can even sell your addresses for a profit later, if there comes a time when you no longer need them.