I'm in the process of moving a fairly large client from an in-house server to a datacenter (yes, in this case, an actual dedicated server).

This is a private network, with no domain name. There are about 50 employees from around the southeast logged in via a customized version of SSH all day long. The only server associations with the outside world are:
1. SSH logins
2. Direct outgoing email, using sendmail
3. Incoming email using fetchmail from mail service (one multidrop account)
4. Use 'curl' software to download credit direct from credit bureaus
5. rsync for backups

That's it, no http, no java, probably nothing as sophisticated as most linodes.

Now, here's my question. The datacenter provides 5 ips, all on the same subnet, (100Mbps), but so far, I'm only using one. Am I missing the boat in terms of reliability, speed, functionality, convenience, or anything else by not using the other four ips? It seems to me like, because of the datacenter's networking environment and the fact that they're all on the same subnet, that it just wouldn't make any difference. Where am I going wrong?

BTW, the server is located in the AtlantaNAP via NetDepot, and so far I'm very happy with it.

Thank you,
Hal Williams

Your configuration is just fine. You'd gain no advantage of using the other IP addresses in the setup you've described.

_________________
Rgds
Stephen
(Linux user since kernel version 0.11)