Allow each IP address to submit something once only?

Gary_King

I basically want to allow each IP address who visits my index.php, to be able to submit something only once (for example, a first name and an e-mail address). This is so that people won't start spamming by submitting multiple names and e-mail addresses.

Is there anything I can do? Maybe make some sort of unlimited cookie?

Thanks in advance 😃

WinterDragon

Put it in a file, read it out into an array... do it in a foreach loop.... ? or do an array_search() and check if it exists in the array. not that hard.

Gary_King

Alright thanks, I'll try that.

Daggeth

Or you could use a cookie on their computer.. however they might catch onto that and delete the cookie so you should do both.

Some people's IP changes so the IP method would be useless for quite a lot of 56Kers. (Yes, they still exisit!)

You can set a cookie for an unlimited amount of time...

Gary_King

Originally posted by Daggeth
Or you could use a cookie on their computer.. however they might catch onto that and delete the cookie so you should do both.

Some people's IP changes so the IP method would be useless for quite a lot of 56Kers. (Yes, they still exisit!)

You can set a cookie for an unlimited amount of time...

How can I set a cookie for an unlimited amount of time?

Do you mean to just set the cookie to wait a long time before expiring? (Like maybe a year.)

Daggeth

Yes, just set it to like an year then.. add a few if state ments like that

if cookie exists
set cookie again for the next six months
tell user that he cant submit again
exit script
else
input data in database or whatever
set cookie

for those of you that arent that bright, thats not real php code.. :p

I think there is a way to set an unlimited cookie, i just dont know it :-/

Gary_King

Yep alright, I'll try that.

voidtrance

Originally posted by Daggeth
Yes, just set it to like an year then.. add a few if state ments like that

if cookie exists
set cookie again for the next six months
tell user that he cant submit again
exit script
else
input data in database or whatever
set cookie

for those of you that arent that bright, thats not real php code.. :p

I think there is a way to set an unlimited cookie, i just dont know it :-/

Actually, as far as I know there is no way of setting an unlimited cookie. You have to specify the exparation time (which is some time in the future). If you specify an invalid exparation time or a time in the past (or 0), the browsers interpret that as an instruction to expire the cookie immidiately.

Gary_King

Alright, well it won't be much of a problem. I'll just set it for a year (or two). Thanks for the help 🙂