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I want to prevent people from certain countries from visiting my website - but I want to allow some defined IP addresses from those countries to be able to access it. Is it possible? If yes, how?

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If I may ask... why would you want to? – docgnome Jul 31 '09 at 5:13
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jul 16 '09 at 22:41

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5 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

You could deny access to a range of IP addresses known to originate from that country, while using a white list to enable access to those specific IP addresses which you want to allow. However, this could easily be subverted by, for example, using a proxy from a different country, or simply by going to a different country and then viewing the website from there. This is probably more trouble than it is worth.

Also, you might want to verify that you are legally permitted to deny access on a country-wide basis. Not to mention, of course, the ethical implications of discriminating against users on the basis of nationality.

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Thanks. Just want to be able to prevent spam from certain countries. Is it really true that this could be illegal? Do you mean there could be rules and regulations that the domain name authorities ask domain name owners to follow? – rajats9999 Jul 16 '09 at 2:37
And in a couple of countries' cases, we have partnerships which require us to not launch independently there. For them at least, is that not a valid reason? This might be too much legalese, but still thought I shd mention. – rajats9999 Jul 16 '09 at 2:40
I don't think blocking certain countries is ilegal, because major websites such as pandora, hulu, and etc do. – Mohamed Jul 16 '09 at 2:58
Lots of companies do lots of illegal things, until they get sued. – Lee B Oct 29 '09 at 6:42
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It's not generally illegal to block geographic IP blocks. Ignore anyone who claims it is. Speak to your corporate legal representative, NOT random interweb dudes with an axe to grind, about any particular legalities that may apply to your specific situation. – DJ Pon3 Nov 6 '09 at 7:24
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up vote 0 down vote

This is going to be pretty tough as a user could still use a proxy to bypass any checks you have that look at IP/location.

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Thanks. Can I make a proxy sitting in one country that looks like an IP address from another country? – rajats9999 Jul 16 '09 at 2:38
@rajats9999 - of course you can. This is trivial to do. Country assignments are not 100% reliable by any means. And more to the point, someone in America can create a proxy and leave it 'open' to the world and I can connect from here in the UK... and for all intents and purposes, on the internet I am now American... voila. – DJ Pon3 Nov 6 '09 at 7:32
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up vote 0 down vote

You could use some data like this: http://www.ipinfodb.com/

When you have that in place, you check to see if your guest matches a banned location, and if they do, only allow them if they are on a white list of ips.

Of course, nothing you do will stop people from using a proxy if they really want to.

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up vote 0 down vote

The easiest way to solve this problem, using data like this(Click download on right-bottom of webpage) for converting user ip to country.

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up vote 0 down vote

I'd write some iptables (or use another type of firewall) and say :

allow all, block this range EXCEPT if the IP can be found in my whitelist

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