Posted by BusyGuy on 09/23/06 08:07

In article <qrYQg.18098$0n.15086@reader1.news.jippii.net>, Jukka K.
Korpela <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi> wrote:

> BusyGuy wrote:
>
> > I want to direct any visitors from one specific country to a specific
> > page.
>
> That's what I suspected. So you _are_ solving the wrong problem.
>
> You have no way of knowing what country I am from, for any definition for
> being from a particular country. In particular, you cannot tell it from my
> IP address, especially not when I am travelling abroad. Trying to guess the
> country from an IP range is simply nonsensical.
>
> Besides, people often actually mean language when they say "country".
>
> So think again. _If_ you really have some special content for people who are
> from Borduria (the proverbial country, you know), simply put a link to such
> content on your main page. Such as "Special prices apply in Borduria",
> making this expression a link. Problem solved.

Thanks very much, Jukka, I appreciate your reply.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help me and I truly hope you are a little bit
incorrect.

I did a search and found myself here
<http://software77.net/cgi-bin/ip-country/geo-ip.pl> but I also notice
these

<http://www.ip2location.com/> (which can pinpoint beyond country, down
to city)

and many others.

I did mean "country" as opposed to "language."

I want to deny access to a particular page for all visitors coming from
a particular country. Visitors from all other countries can have
access. It's a question of complying with a court order granting
suppression of information to a particular country.

I realise I can't stop determined people (who might use an anonymizing
service, for example) so I know it's not going to be 100% but I want to
do what I can.

Here is a hypothetical and fictional analog: imagine if a webmaster
wanted to avoid pissing off the Chinese authorities by denying access
to a particular news page if the visitor is coming from China. I think
if some steps are taken, the authorities will not be pissed off with
the webmaster, only with a determined surfer who tries to evade the
block.

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