Geo-targeting suggestions

[worldly1]

I'm not sure this is the appropriate place to ask this but...

I'm interested in restricting access to a website from certain countries. I am aware of Target Country by IP Address, and ip2country but see no other solutions. Is this the only one available?

Would appreciate any help and direction. Thank you,

Scott

 

[ChrisHirst]

That's about it,

get the IP, check the country of origin, allow or block.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[NevadaJones]

geobytes.com has a script that will do that for you. Only con is 1 of every 50 visitors will be taken to an ad site.

 

[vacunita]

I have a question about his: since I haven't really had the need to limit a website based on a country, I don't understand its usefulness in a day and age when mobility is a key factor in web users' lives.


For example you have User X that lives say in Country Y. Your site has functionality that won't allow any users from Country Y to access it. But this same user, on this same machine, takes a trip to Country Z, where he connects his computer to say an Internet cafe's wireless internet. Country Z is allowed access to the website.

I would assume the country protection is now useless. As this same user has now gained access to a website that was supposedly of limits to him , but because the ISP he is using is now in a different country he can access it even though user and PC remain the same.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[NevadaJones]

vacunita: It is unlikely that a person would travel to another country just to access a website, but I get your point. A person could very easily use a proxy ip from an authorized country and visit a website if her country is blocked.

I don't know why the OP wants to restrict IP's from certain country, but I have a client's website which wants to run local classified ads. IP location identifies posters from out of state and especially out of country. There are a few problems with IP location by some carriers such as AOL because all AOL IP's appear to come out of Virgina although they are local, but code is written to work around those problems.

On that site I have also blocked email replies coming from out of country. In monitoring rejected replies from countries such as country N, I have concluded with the client that no one from out of country is sincerely interested in anything someone from Georgia is selling. All replies have been scam email wanting to make counterfeit check and money wire transfer.

Although the Web is World Wide, there could be several reasons a person may want their site to only be accessible to local visitors. And an ideal ip redirection script will simply transfer the visitor to a different page or redirect their replies to a different email. This way the visitor will not know they are actually being diverted and want result to using a proxy IP or hopping a jet to an Internet Cafe in another country.

 

[vacunita]

Thanx for the explanation, I understand the usage. But the point is still valid.
Take it from the other point of view:

A user might need to take a business trip to another country and while in that country attempt to access the site because he needs some information from it for something he's doing.

If the site is detecting the country it may now not let the user access it or redirect him wrongfully because he is using an ISP from a country that can't access that website, or like yours get information that he doesn't need or find useful, but because he is now using an ISP in another country, he gets that information instead of the information he really needs. You see my point?

Unless you know your users will never leave the country, or attempt to access your website from another country, you are potentially limiting the usefulness of the site.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[NevadaJones]

OK I see that now. A person whom would normally be welcome on the site could not access it from a different country.