How To Keep a Web Site Local? 297
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?"
Why you gotta be like that? (Score:5, Interesting)
You have no idea what is of use to other people. Maybe they're thinking of visiting your local area. Maybe they have friends that live there. Maybe they're thinking of setting up a similar board for their own area and want to know how yours is going. Put down your ego for a minute.
Local Capthca (Score:3, Interesting)
Implement something similar to a captcha: Ask questions only people from your neighborhood can answer. Make sure the answers are not too easily found by using google.
Callback/SMS (Score:4, Interesting)
One previously common method of authentication was call-back. You give the site your phone number, then then site calls you (and you press a digit, or answer with your modem).
Nowadays the equivilent is SMS. When they sign up, have them put in their cell number to receive an SMS, then require them to enter that code to continue. You can send SMSes via email for most carriers, so no equipment on your end. Only allow SMSes to your area code and local carriers. For people without cell phones, have them enter their landline phone number and then have a human call them.
Re:Why use a tech solution? (Score:5, Interesting)
Happens to me a lot. I'm in Hong Kong. I find some US ISPs (like AOL) bounce my mail solely based on my location. And much media (even some on Youtube) is blocked geographically. Even some porn sites block me.... And other sites insist on giving me Chinese versions of their web pages, with no option to choose English. Highly irritating to go to Google.com and find myself redirected to Google.com.hk. (Yes, I have workarounds now, still annoying.)
Re:Why you gotta be like that? (Score:1, Interesting)
Excellent point. A couple of years ago my son was going to interview at a college, sleep overnight in the dorm etc. What I wanted to do in this rural area was go for a bicycle ride. I googled up a local bicycle club, downloaded a map from one of their rides, emailed one of them to try to find out where I could rent a bike. He loaned me a bike. I traveled with helmet, clothes and pedals. On the face of it, it would have seemed obvious that only locals would have been interested in the local bike club and its rides.
Non-local trolling would be blocked? (Score:2, Interesting)
> who cares about the library shutting an hour earlier on Thursdays and the
> graffiti on the bus shelter, except the people living there?
It might be fun to troll even if you don't live there. If only local access were allowed, then the population of possible trolls would be much smaller.
Like everything else it's a tradeoff between the benefits, and the disadvantages (in this case, probably the main disadvantage is blocking access to some people who should have it).
Re:Non-local trolling would be blocked? (Score:4, Interesting)
The easy solution would be to only apply the limitation on account creation. Just have to prove once that you live in the area!
Re:.htaccess (Score:3, Interesting)
Or, more likely, he doesn't want to pay for bandwidth and cpu usage for people who have nothing to do with what his server offers.
The big problem, however, with restriction-by-location is that users who are away from home but still want to check the board are going to be restricted.
Here's a solution: Only let them reguster if their IP is local. Local accessors need not be logged in, however, in order to use the site from a non-local IP, they must log in with their pre-established credentials.
It won't stop visitors to your home page, but it will cut down on a lot of other usage of your server.