IP Neighborhood Analysis
Discover all domains hosted on the same IP address. Identify security risks, analyze hosting patterns, and detect CDN configurations.
Table of Contents
Overview
IP Neighborhood Analysis (also called Reverse IP Lookup) reveals which domains share the same IP address as your target domain. This powerful intelligence helps you understand hosting configurations, identify shared hosting risks, and discover related domains.
What You'll Discover:
- All domains hosted on the same IP (reverse IP lookup)
- Hosting provider and ASN (Autonomous System Number) information
- Geographic location of the server
- CDN detection (Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, Fastly, etc.)
- Potential security risks from neighbors
Why IP Neighborhoods Matter
1. Security & Reputation Risks
Sharing an IP with malicious domains can impact your reputation. Search engines may flag your IP if neighbors host spam, malware, or phishing sites. Email deliverability suffers if neighbors send spam (IP reputation impacts inbox placement).
2. Shared Hosting Detection
If you find 100+ domains on one IP, you're on shared hosting. This affects performance, security, and SEO. Premium sites should be on dedicated IPs or VPS with few neighbors.
3. Competitor Intelligence
Discover hidden properties of competitors by finding domains on their IPs. Example: Finding all sites owned by a company that didn't disclose them publicly.
4. CDN & Cloud Configuration
If your domain resolves to Cloudflare or AWS CloudFront IPs, IP neighborhood analysis confirms CDN usage and shows other sites using the same CDN edge server.
How to Perform IP Neighborhood Analysis
Step 1: Open the IP Neighborhood Tool
- Navigate to Domain Tracker
- Select a domain from your portfolio
- Click the IP Neighborhood tab
Step 2: Trigger the Scan
Click "Analyze IP Neighborhood" button. The scan will:
- Resolve the domain's A record to get IPv4 address
- Query reverse IP databases for domains on that IP
- Fetch ASN and hosting provider information
- Perform geolocation lookup
⏱️ Scan Time: 10-30 seconds depending on database size.
Step 3: Review Results
You'll see a table with:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| IP Address | The IPv4 address being analyzed |
| Neighbor Count | Total domains found on this IP |
| ASN | Autonomous System Number (e.g., AS13335 for Cloudflare) |
| Hosting Provider | Organization name (e.g., "Amazon Web Services") |
| Location | City, Region, Country |
| Is CDN | ✅ if IP belongs to known CDN provider |
Step 4: Explore Neighbor Domains
Click "View Neighbors" to see the full list of domains. Results are paginated for large neighborhoods.
Interpreting Results
🟢 Healthy (1-10 neighbors)
Dedicated hosting or VPS. Low security risk. Good for enterprise/ecommerce sites.
🟡 Moderate (11-100 neighbors)
Shared hosting or cloud platform. Monitor neighbor reputation. Acceptable for SMB sites.
🔴 High Risk (100+ neighbors)
Cheap shared hosting. Security and performance concerns. Consider upgrading.
CDN Detection
If "Is CDN" shows ✅, your domain uses a CDN. In this case, high neighbor counts are normal and not a concern. CDN IPs host thousands of sites by design. Examples:
- Cloudflare: AS13335 — Millions of sites, normal to see 1000+ neighbors
- AWS CloudFront: AS16509 — Same IP serves many CloudFront distributions
- Fastly: AS54113 — Shared edge servers
Common Use Cases
🔍 Due Diligence for Domain Purchase
Scenario: You're buying a high-value domain. Check the IP neighborhood to ensure it's not hosted on a server with spam or malicious sites (which could have tainted the IP reputation).
Action: If you find risky neighbors, factor in the cost of moving to a clean IP.
🛡️ Security Threat Analysis
Scenario: Your site was hacked. Check if neighbors were also compromised (indicating a server-level breach).
Action: If multiple neighbors show malware, migrate to a new server immediately.
📧 Email Deliverability Issues
Scenario: Your emails are landing in spam. Check if neighbors are sending spam (IP blocklist).
Action: Request a dedicated IP from your host, or use a transactional email service (SendGrid, Mailgun).
🕵️ Competitive Intelligence
Scenario: A competitor has one public domain. Find their hidden properties via IP neighborhood.
Discovery: Uncover staging environments, internal tools, or other business units' domains.
Best Practices
✅ DO:
- Run IP neighborhood analysis quarterly for production domains
- Consider dedicated IPs for high-traffic or reputation-sensitive sites (ecommerce, SaaS)
- Monitor ASN changes (indicates hosting migration)
- Use CDNs for performance + automatic clean IP pool
- Check neighbor reputation using tools like Google Safe Browsing or VirusTotal
❌ DON'T:
- Panic if you have 1000+ neighbors on a CDN IP (this is normal and safe)
- Assume all shared hosting is bad (acceptable for blogs and small sites)
- Ignore sudden increases in neighbor count (may indicate server consolidation)
- Forget to re-scan after moving hosts (verify new IP is clean)
💡 Pro Tip: Dedicated IP vs CDN
For maximum control, use a dedicated origin IP behind a CDN. Your origin has a clean IP with few neighbors, while the CDN provides speed and DDoS protection. Best of both worlds.
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