Provisioning Dedicated IPs
As part of the custom domain setup process, Files.com automatically provisions 2 dedicated IP addresses that are exclusive to your site and act as static IP addresses. This means that if you have users who restrict outbound access via a firewall, they will only need to whitelist your 2 dedicated IP addresses in order to access your site via the custom domain, rather than having to whitelist our entire published list of IP addresses.
You can get realtime notification of IP address changes by polling the /ip_addresses
API endpoint shown in our API documentation. This endpoint returns a response including your site's 2 dedicated IP addresses.
Our goal is that your Dedicated IPs remain the same, and we work hard to avoid having IP Addresses change out from under you. In practice, dedicated IPs for our customers have remained the same for the past several years. If we ever have to make changes to your IP addresses, we will endeavor to provide advance notice.
Releasing IP Addresses
Dedicated IP addresses will be released and reassigned to other customers unless they are being actively used to support a custom domain its associated SSL Certificate. If you follow the steps listed in Removing Your Custom Domain, your dedicated IP addresses will be released after 5 days.
If you are following the steps for Changing an Existing Custom Domain you'll need to update your DNS entries and complete your setup within a 5-day period to keep the same dedicated IP addresses. If the DNS entries for your custom domain are not set up properly within that 5-day period, your dedicated IPs will be released to be used by other customers.
Retaining The Primary IPs of Your Subdomain
If your site has been active for a while, you likely have established file flows with customers and other businesses. Requiring those partners to use new, dedicated IP addresses might not be practical because many companies find it hard to update their firewall or network settings without causing problems. It is possible to use a custom domain for rebranding, yet still retain your site's current IP addresses.
When you choose to provide your own SSL certificate, your subdomain address (<your-subdomain>.files.com
) will use the general pool of Files.com IP addresses. This allows any existing configuration using your old connection information to remain in place. Dedicated IP addresses will be allocated for your site, and your custom domain will use those addresses.
First, obtain an SSL certificate from a trusted certificate authority.
Upload the certificate to your Files.com site, and then activate the certificate.
Update your site's custom domain settings to use the domain of your SSL certificate.
When using your own SSL certificate, you are responsible for renewing and updating the certificate to avoid any interruptions.