Block IP Addresses

[MichaelJ]

The nature and content of my forum will be of interest to users limited to only the continental US.

1. What are the downsides of blocking all but US based IP addresses?
2. If I decide to do that what is the best approach?

Thanks

--------------- Added [DATE]1268521343[/DATE] at [TIME]1268521343[/TIME] ---------------

I'm using vB4.0 and tried searching the forum. The search was not allowed because a search of the phrase "block IP address" returns IP is only 2 characters.

[archet1337]

Have you tried searching for "Block Access"
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/search.php?searchid=15161018


What you are looking for is GeoIP:

GeoIPEnable On
GeoIPDBFile /path/to/GeoIP.dat

SetEnvIf GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE US AllowCountry
# ... place more countries here

Deny from all
Allow from env=AllowCountry

# Optional - use if you want to allow a specific IP address from the country you denied
# (See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_access.html for more details)
Allow from 10.1.2.3

More info here:
http://www.maxmind.com/app/mod_geoip

One major downside I can think of is that your members when abroad can't access your site.