Some accesses are made through proxy servers or NAT gateways, machines that have a single IP address but may be in use by multiple people. AOL and some of the other large service providers always route requests through proxy servers. Virtual Domain - When you are supporting multiple domains on a single server, each domain being served is often referred to as a virtual domain. Different server software implements or defines virtual domains in different ways. The strict definition of virtual domain is when a single IP address is shared between multiple domains.
Summary uses the term virtual domain in any situation involving more than one domain.
See also Virtual Server. Virtual Server - When you are supporting multiple domains with a single server program, each domain is said to have a virtual server. Summary uses virtual server to refer to a domain or server name in any situation where more than one domain or server is involved. Summary looks at the name of the server either from the domain name that the visitor typed as part of the request, the IP address which received the request, the configured server name, or the name of the sub-folder in the Logs folder, and calls that the virtual server name. See also Virtual Domain.