How To Keep a Web Site Local?

Cornwallis writes "The universal accessibility of the Internet is one of its attractions. But what do you do when you don't want your board to be Slashdotted? Back in the day it was great to run a local BBS where friends and neighbors could dial in using their 9600-baud modems to pick up mail or share games or stories. Now, my Web-based board gets slammed by people from all over the world who have no reason to access it, can't possibly take advantage of the locally focused services it offers, and generally take up my time because I have to block their accounts or explain to them why they can't have access. This despite the fact that the board explains quite clearly that it is for local use only and couldn't possibly be of interest to them. Other than putting thousands of entries in my hosts file to block IP ranges, what options do I have to restrict access to locals only? Or isn't that feasible?"

Comments

.htaccess

[Norsefire]

order allow,deny
deny from all
allow from iprange
allow from iprange
allow from iprange
etc. etc.

There are websites all over the internet that allow you to do country-by-IP-range lookups.

You could also do;

ErrorDocument 403 "Sorry, this website is only available to people living in .

(Yes, no final quotation mark).

Or don't worry, what does it hurt if people who aren't benefiting from a website visit it?

Re:.htaccess

[Anonymous Coward]

For any Americans wondering what their mad cousins, from across the pond, are talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOGAAlHzF4o

Re:.htaccess

[andy.ruddock]

Or allow access to all registered users, but only allow "local" access to the signup page.