Additional IPv4 Addresses

How to buy an extra dedicated IPv4 address for a KapsuleHost server, what it is genuinely useful for, and what it will not do.

Every KapsuleHost server comes with a public IPv4 address and IPv6 connectivity as standard. An additional IPv4 address is an optional monthly add-on for the cases where one address is not enough. It costs US$4.00 per month per address, shown excluding GST.

Do You Actually Need One?

Extra IP addresses are one of the most commonly bought and least commonly needed add-ons in hosting, so it is worth being honest about this before you spend anything.

Good reasons to buy one:

You need to run two services that both want to own the same port on the same machine, and they cannot be separated by hostname.
You want a service isolated on its own address so that its reputation, filtering or firewall treatment is independent of everything else on the server.
Something you connect to on the other end allowlists by IP, and you need a stable address that is not shared with your other workloads.
You are preparing a migration and want the new configuration answering on its own address before you move traffic to it.

Reasons that are myths, and will not repay the money:

You do not need a dedicated IP for HTTPS. Modern certificate handling identifies the site by hostname, so any number of sites can hold valid certificates on one address. See SSL Certificates.
A dedicated IP does not improve search ranking.
A dedicated IP does not by itself fix email deliverability. Deliverability is decided by authentication and sending behaviour. Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC and fix the sending pattern first. See SPF, DKIM and DMARC and Blacklist Delisting.

Additional IPv4 addresses attach to a cloud server or a dedicated server. They are not available for shared web hosting, WordPress hosting, or Orbit projects, because on those products the address belongs to the platform rather than to you.

What About IPv6?

IPv6 is included on cloud servers at no extra charge, and it is assigned when the server is provisioned. You can see the address on the server's page in KPanel.

If your reason for wanting another address is simply "I need more addresses", IPv6 gives you an effectively unlimited supply for free. The catch is coverage: some networks and some third-party services still only speak IPv4, which is exactly why the IPv4 add-on exists.

Buying One

You need a cloud server first. If you have none, the add-on page will tell you so and point you at creating one.

Go to Store in the KPanel sidebar.
Open Additional IPv4.
Read the price and the summary at the top of the page.
Under Choose a server, find the server the address should be routed to.
Click Add IPv4 on that server.
Complete checkout.

Buying an additional IPv4 address in the Store

You can also order one directly from a server rather than from the Store. On a cloud server's page, or on the management page of a dedicated server order, the same add-on is available and pre-selects that server for you.

The address is routed to the server you choose at checkout. Pick carefully. Moving an address between servers afterwards is not a self-service action.

After You Pay

The address is allocated and attached to your server automatically, usually within a few minutes of checkout. Occasionally an allocation has to be completed by hand, in which case it is fulfilled within 12 hours and you will see it appear on the server without doing anything further.

Once it is attached, the address is listed with the server in KPanel. Depending on your operating system and how the server was built, you may need to configure the new address inside the server before it responds. That is normal for a secondary address on an unmanaged server, and it is your side of the line. See Managed vs Unmanaged.

Once the address is live, remember to:

Open the ports you intend to use for it in the firewall. See Server Firewall.
Add DNS records pointing at it if anything should resolve there. See DNS Basics.
Check that any allowlists on the other end include the new address.

Billing

The add-on is a monthly subscription, one per address, billed alongside the rest of your account in your billing currency. It starts at purchase and continues until you remove the address.

Prices are shown excluding GST, and 15% GST is added at checkout when your account currency is NZD. See GST and Tax Invoices and Reading Your Invoice.

Removing an Address

Removing the add-on stops the billing first, then detaches and releases the address.

A released IPv4 address is gone for good. It goes back into the pool and you will not get the same one again. Before you remove one, check that nothing points at it: DNS records, hard-coded configuration inside the server, allowlists held by third parties, and monitoring. Anything still relying on that address stops working the moment it is released.

If you are not certain, take a snapshot of the server first. See Server Snapshots.