(newcomer) .htaccess file help

[Goose3]

Hello Everyone! I'm new in programming better said I honestly don't have a clue but hopefully with time would like to gain

a better insight to it's languages.

 

At the moment I encountered a problem & don't have the slightest idea of what to do, it's extremely important and would deeply appreciate if anyone could help.

 

Last year I built a personal website to put my work, everything worked great until a few months ago when through a weekly visitors report noticed a large amount of visitors coming from China & Mexico.

I don't have anything against these two countries but through research & personal experience have learned that there are

a few individuals who tend to take work from others & make lots of copies & then sell on the market. 

 

Through google search discovered that there is a website that would generate the .htaccess file :

http://www.ip2location.com/blockvisitorsbycountry.aspx

 

• would it work in blocking the countries selected?
• also where do I upload this .htaccess file on the server? ( read somewhere that it would need to be transfered on to the server with in ASCII mode??)

 

I would truly appreciate it if anyone could help with a simple step by step, just two days ago had to put a blank index.page on to the website to stop more visitors from viewing it, not including renaming the other files.

 

Please I really do need your help.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Yes, the ip2 .htaccess would, with the occasionally hiccups (nothing is sound proof), allow you to block said countries.

 

One of the simplest methods is to use a FTP/SFTP program to upload the file you get from ip2 (it is a ASCII text file).  After you upload the file (it can be named whatever.txt ), rename it to .htaccess 

This .htaccess file goes into your lowest-level directory

 

This site has some good info re: .htaccess.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/htaccess.html 

 

I'm assuming whoever is hosting your website may also have a FAQ (or whatever) regarding things like this.

[+Zlip792 MVC]

Some .htaccess snippets, will be helpful for you - https://github.com/phanan/htaccess

[Goose3]

Thank you  jjkusaf & +Zlip792, but still don't understand it

I'm very sorry I'm a total novice in this.

 

 

( jjkusaf ) the link doesn't work, didn't fully understand by FTP/SFTP program & uploading it on to the lowest-level directory, I have hosting with 1&1 at the moment & not getting any help from them. How does this entire .htcaccess block country ip's actually work & onto the server ?  

 

 

(+Zlip792) Just looking at the moment for a ready auto generated file until I start learning bit by bit about the language that will take some time which in this case really can't afford to wait 

(the website is currently off to visitors & I'm honestly desperate)

 

Please help me, really wish could do this on my own, really tried but can't understand it. 

[+Zlip792 MVC]

- Which HTTP Server you have?

Apache or nginx?

 

Take a look at this:

 

https://github.com/phanan/htaccess#allow-all-access-except-spammers

 

 

## Apache 2.2
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
Deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxy

## Apache 2.4
# Require all granted
# Require not ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
# Require not ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxy

 

Replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with IPs from the countires, you want to block.

 

- Try to generate htaccess file from this URL as well - http://incredibill.me/htaccess-block-country-ips

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Thank you  jjkusaf & +Zlip792, but still don't understand it

I'm very sorry I'm a total novice in this.

 

 

( jjkusaf ) the link doesn't work, didn't fully understand by FTP/SFTP program & uploading it on to the lowest-level directory, I have hosting with 1&1 at the moment & not getting any help from them. How does this entire .htcaccess block country ip's actually work & onto the server ?  

 

 

Sorry about the link being broken ... it is corrected here:  http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html

 

Regarding the htaccess...just download it from Zlips link or from the place in your original post.  It is simply a text file that you can create through notepad or download.  It doesn't work its magic until you upload and rename it (you should be able to do this through the FTP program) to .htaccess .  It should be in your lowest level (root directory).

 

Here is a 1&1 help center regarding the .htaccess  https://help.1and1.com/hosting-c37630/scripts-and-programming-languages-c85099/htaccess-c37776

[BinaryData]

I'm so happy that someone asked about .htaccess! I'm curious about it myself.

My question is; can you still block a specific address, if you don't have access to the apach conf files?

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

I'm so happy that someone asked about .htaccess! I'm curious about it myself.

My question is; can you still block a specific address, if you don't have access to the apach conf files?

Order Deny,Allow
Deny from 6.6.6.6

Put above in a .htaccess file to block 6.6.6.6

[BinaryData]

Order Deny,Allow
Deny from 6.6.6.6

Put above in a .htaccess file to block 6.6.6.6

 

Again, you've saved my bacon. Thank you, sir!

[+BudMan MVC]

So I picked block MX from that list on that website. http://www.ip2location.com/blockvisitorsbycountry.aspx
 
Now I can tell you from that list that it generated that its clearly not correct.
 
They have deny,allow and then a huge list of allows and then deny all.
 
And my comcast IP address that is Chicagoland is not listed, so if I put that on my site I would end up blocking myself
 
So while it might block some of MX?  It clearly would block IPs not part of MX, so I looking at country blocks from here http://www.nirsoft.net/countryip/mx.html I see that
 

200.52.160.0 200.52.191.255 8192 03/11/99

200.52.192.0 200.52.223.255 8192 03/11/99  

 

Are listed as being mx netblocks but they are allowed in the generated .htaccess file

 

allow from 200.52.160.0/19
allow from 200.52.192.0/18

 

And quick whois for those netblocks sure look like they are MX netblocks to me

 

inetnum:     200.52.192/19
status:      allocated
aut-num:     N/A
owner:       Mega Cable, S.A. de C.V.
ownerid:     MX-MSCV17-LACNIC
responsible: Orencio Meza
address:     Av. Lazaro Cardenas, 1694, Del Fresno
address:     44900 - Guadalajara - JA
country:     MX
 

So sure wouldn't use that website for anything related to trying to block anything via htaccess.

 

 

[DeathLace]

Budman,

 

I think you need to change the dropdown to Apache .htaccess deny, and then click Download.  This way it'll change all those Mexico IPs from Allow from (IP address) to Deny from (IP address)

[DPyro]

Simplest way I've found is to sign up with cloudflare and block ips from there.