How to Hide Web Hosting Details and Protect Your Website from Hackers

[johny899]

Have you ever looked up a website and thought "What provider is hosting this? People do this all the time. Sometimes it's just with curiosity in mind, other times, it's a hacker or competitor trying to snoop. If you're hosting a website, you might want to keep your hosting provider under wraps so it's secure and private. Let me quickly show you, in basic terms, how you can do that.

Why Would You Want To Hide Your Hosting Provider?​

When someone does a WHOIS lookup, or an IP lookup, they can pull a lot of details about your website's server. And that's actually a problem because:

• Competitors can implement your hosting plan exactly as you did.

• Hackers can decide to simply attack your server with no reason behind it.

• People can judge your site based on your hosting provider.

So there is even more information to give away, so why would you?

Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)​

One of the simplest ways is to use a CDN like Cloudflare. A CDN is in-between your website and your visitors. This means when people try to check your host, they are only given the CDN's details, not your actual server.

Additional Benefits:

• Hides your real IP.

• Prevents DDoS attacks.

• Makes your site faster through caching.

I once used Cloudflare for a site that was being attacked like crazy. After setting it up, the attackers could only view Cloudflare and not the real server. It worked like a charm.

WHOIS Privacy​

If you purchase a domain name, it is possible that your details (name, email, and host) can be found via the public WHOIS record. You can achieved this by buying WHOIS privacy protection from your domain provider to get around this.

It's similar to using a P.O. box instead of your home address. People will only see fictional details, not real details.

Use a Reverse Proxy​

If you have a little tech knowledge, you can use a reverse proxy. This forces all traffic to go through another server first, similar to having a guard at the entryway that hides the real entry.

This is complicated, however. It is not for base understanding.

Shared Hosting Advantage​

If you are on shared hosting, you may already be a little obscured. It is impossible for a company to know who is hosted by whom. This is not a fool-proof method, but it does create some level of masking.

Conclusion​

Yes, you can hide your hosting provider. The best ways to hide your host are to use a CDN, have WHOIS privacy, and have a reverse proxy (if you know how to set that up). It would be like finding a way to hide your home address, no one just says, "Here is my home address." I hope you would not be that person saying where they are hosted!