banned viewers

fizzwizz

can I use php to ban certain ip addresses from viewing my site? If so how?

Anon

are u using mysql?

then create a table with banned ips.

in the script use

$ip = getenv("REMOTE_ADDR");
$bannedips = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $yourtable");

while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($bannedips))
{
if ($row[0] == $ip) {echo("your ip is banned");}
}

fizzwizz

I don't have mysql but if I don't find another solution I will have to use it. Thanks 🙂

Anon

You have to keep the data somewhere. Whether you end up using a database or not doesn't matter.

If you have to, you could just use text file to hold the banned IP's. Although, if you anticipate having a large number of banned IP's, you'll see a performance hit.

Also, you might think more about what banning IP's means. If an offending user is coming through a proxy server, the IP that you ban will be that of the proxy server (I think?). Thus, if you ban that IP, you'll be banning everyone that uses that proxy server.

Perhaps someone else has more knowledge about this sort of thing and can tell you if this is really the way it works.

amcgrath

Nope, you're right.

yendor

DLB is right. Also, if the "persons" you are trying to ban have dynamic IP addresses (just about all dialups do and basic DSL/Cable service), there is no guarantee you'll block that person next time they access your page. Since dynamic IP addresses are assigned randomly you could end up blocking someone you WANT to have access to your page.

Regards,

Rodney

Anon

let them back on and write a cookie that bans them maybe?

banning an ip would be the easiest, except the dial up delima.

if you are doing something that bans for a certain action, right when it occurs, a cookie that never expires would work great.

ip is the only other option.
you could get the browser/cleint info as well, and ban both when they occur together.
this info would look like this:

202.148.1.30 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98)

and would help lessen the chance that you are banning the wrong user.