Website question

[Jeslek]

For my current project, I would like to tighten security dramatically by allowing access to it only from the United States and possibly Canada. Is there a way of doing that? Sort of like websites checked to see if you were in the U.S. or Canada before allowing you to download high encryption software. I have PHP, ASP, and Oracle to work with. Thanks.

 

[Shadowfax]

most likely that would be some php script checking the origin of the IP, selecting on country. quite some work if you have to sort those out...

 

[ris]

i wonder how possible it would be to reroute the ip, like some members here do to hide their true location, and thus circumvent the lock

 

[Shadowfax]

good point yeah...didn't think of that

 

[PT]

I'm sure it is.

 

[Jeslek]

Of course it would be possible to reroute, but there are other measures to stop that. I'm simply looking to block the average joe from knowing there is even a website other than the redirection he is going to get.

 

[fury]

It's fairly simple, assuming you've got a good grasp of how to accomplish it in your preferred language. Resolve the IP to a hostname and then check that the hostname ends in TLD's that come from the USA or Canada. The biggest problems with this are that it can add a few seconds onto the page generation if the DNS server is not up to speed, and that not all IP's can be resolved to a hostname.

Another alternative would be to check the browser's reported locale.

 

[Bubba]

#3 « Posted 5/21/03 09:47pm »
i wonder how possible it would be to reroute the ip, like some members here do to hide their true location, and thus circumvent the lock

it's easy, but pointless

if someone from another country sees that their ip isn't accepted then in most cases they will just go somewhere else

the way to discourage the maybe less than 1% that would still want access is to direct them to a dummy page instead of blocking them. in this way they would think the site has nothing to see. it could be as simple as a message saying that all downloads have been removed. this would be better than blocking in my opinion

 

[fury]

That's a good idea. I never thought of that before.

 

[Hector]

Hey ris, is that avatar of yours the submercible guy from 007: For your eyes only?

 

[Shadowfax]

no, that's actually him

 

[ris]

mwehehe, still getting confused with b-list celebs, first it was jarv cocker, then louis theroux...

 

[Hector]

It does look like him.