Name-based vs. IP-based Virtual Hosts

Name-based vs. IP-based Virtual Hosts

IP-based virtual hosts use the IP address of the connection to determine the correct virtual host to serve. Therefore you need to have a separate IP address for each host. With name-based virtual hosting, the server relies on the client to report the hostname as part of the HTTP headers. Using this technique, many different hosts can share the same IP address.

Name-based virtual hosting is usually simpler, since you need only configure your DNS server to map each hostname to the correct IP address and then configure the Apache HTTP Server to recognize the different hostnames. Name-based virtual hosting also eases the demand for scarce IP addresses. Therefore you should use name-based virtual hosting unless you are using equipment that explicitly demands IP-based hosting. Historical reasons for IP-based virtual hosting based on client support are no longer applicable to a general-purpose web server, unless you are using a mod_ssl version without SNI support (standard in Apache releases since 2.2.12).

Using Name-based Virtual Hosts

Related Modules
core

Related Directives
DocumentRoot
NameVirtualHost
ServerAlias
ServerName
ServerPath
<VirtualHost>

For more infomation : apache.org