Question

I am coding a script, that will restrict multiple access for a particular user from a given IP address. In other words, a given user will only be able to access/view the page one time from the same IP address.

But how do I compare the incoming IP’s to detect this kind of access?

I want to Track IPs for 60 days max.

Answer 1

You’ll need to store IPs in a database or flat file somewhere for comparison.

Let’s imagine you have a MySQL table visits such as this:

`ip` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`date_created` datetime NOT NULL,
`last_visit` datetime NOT NULL,
`visits` int(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`ip`)

Using PHP we can get the user’s IP, create or update a table record in the database, and then do some comparison.

<?php

// Get the user's IP
$ip = getenv('REMOTE_ADDR');

// Create a database record, or update if they're been here before
$dblink = mysql_connect( 'localhost', 'username', 'password' );
mysql_select_db( 'database', $dblink );
$rs = mysql_query( "INSERT INTO visits (ip, date_created, last_visit, visits) VALUES( '$ip', NOW(), NOW(), 1 ) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `last_visit` = NOW(), visits=visits+1 ", $dblink );

// Compare database record for last visit and first visit
$rs = mysql_query( "SELECT visits, DATEDIFF( last_visit, date_created ) as sincelast FROM visits WHERE `ip` = '$ip' ");
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs );

// If this is their first visit, do one thing, otherwise, do another.
if ( $row['sincelast'] > 59 || $row['visits'] < 2 ) {
    // They visited 60+ days ago, or this is their first visit
} else {
    // This is not their first visit
}