How to determine the true IP address of a site?

Question

Domain Name System

The IP in the "A" record of the domain does not refer to the same site (there are no redirects, as well as CNAME records). For example, the "A" record for the www.smtp.com domain refers to 74.91.83.204, but when I paste this IP into the browser line, I am redirected to www.smtp.com/corporate/. Question - how to find out the true ip of the machine that hosts the site, for example for www.smtp.com? Thanks a lot for any clarification.

Answer 1

No way. Google about the concept of "virtual host". At that address there can be a dozen sites, and two dozen redirect rules (RewriteRule), which, depending on the request, are scattered in different places - both on the same address and on others.
When you enter by IP, the server gives either the "default" site or the first one configured.

Answer 2

A Web server can have virtual hosts, and the server, when accessed, will serve content depending on the value of the Host parameter in the HTTP request header. So it's not enough to address by IP, you also need to prescribe headers.

Answer 3

Where the A-record refers, there is the site. And a few dozen more. When you write an address instead of a name, the web server does not know what you want to see and returns what is configured by default.