Hi

I've never posted on a forum before so here goes.

I have a mini (3 pages) custom built store but have a problem with someone abusing it, he/she keeps using different contact details but their IP is always the same. I've lost contact with the web designer so I can't ask him to do it for me.

The site is written in php, I'm quite good with html but I haven't a clue about php.

Can this IP be blocked with php and if so, how do I do it?

Hi Peter

This is the simplest way to block a single IP with PHP.

Change "127.0.0.1" to the offending IP. If you place this snippet at the very top of the page the unwanted user will be served a blank page.

You can also replace the "exit()" function with a page redirect to send your unwanted visitor to another location of your choice. To change the code to handle multiple IPs or even whole IP blocks e.g. 127.0.0.* requires a slight modification of the code, if you need this done let me know and I'll post the solution.

Note that if the top of your source code already begins with "<?php" then you can leave out the "<?php" & "?>" parts of the above code as these two lines designate the start and end of a PHP segment. As long as you place the rest of the code after the first "<?php" it will work.

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Lawrence

Thank you very much, I tested it with my own ip and it worked a treat. I only need the one IP blocked but if I need more I may come back to you.

One more question, how can I make it display a message instead of a blank page?

Hi Pete

You can add a message to the exit() function like this exit("Go Away");

If you want something more elaborate then you can do something like this.

Basically what this is doing is switching off PHP "mode" with the ?> so it reverts back to HTML, then when the the HTML is finished the <?php switches PHP back on again.

You can place an entire HTML page is that space.

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Lawrence

Thanks a lot Lawrence, that's exactly what I need. Don't be surprised if I return with more questions soon though.

Cheers
Pete