> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.hosting.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Controlling site access based on a visitor's country

> Learn how to allow or block visitors based on the country associated with their IP address. You may want to do this for a variety of security reasons.

This article describes how to allow or block visitors based on the country associated with their IP address. You may want to do this for a variety of reasons, including:

* Repeated attacks from IP addresses originating in a specific country or countries.

* Visitor statistics that are misleading or difficult to interpret due to numerous visits from a specific country or countries. For example, site statistics may indicate a very high bounce rate due to visits by [botnets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet) rather than actual humans.

* If you run an e-commerce site, repeated fraudulent orders.

## Controlling site access by country

You can control site access from specific countries by using **allow** and **deny** directives in an *.htaccess* file. To do this, you must obtain the ranges of IP addresses that are assigned to a particular country.

There are several web sites that enable you to generate these *.htaccess* directives automatically based on the country or countries you specify. The following procedure demonstrates how to use the service provided by [IP2Location](https://www.ip2location.com).

<Warning>
  **Important**

  * This method is not 100% effective because IP address assignments can change, and IP address ranges can overlap. Nevertheless, this method blocks the majority of traffic from the specified country.

  * Some countries are allocated numerous IP address ranges, and blocking all of them requires hundreds or thousands of lines of *.htaccess* directives. Because the server reads and processes the *.htaccess* file each time your site is accessed, this may cause performance issues. You should test any IP address blocking configuration to make sure it does not negatively impact your site's performance.
</Warning>

To generate country-based access rules for your site, follow these steps:

1. Use your web browser to visit [https://www.ip2location.com/free/visitor-blocker](https://www.ip2location.com/free/visitor-blocker).

2. In the left sidebar, confirm **Firewall List by Country** is selected.

3. In the **Download List** section, in the **Country** list box, select the country for which you want to block or grant access.

4. In the **IP Version** list box, select **IPv4**.

5. In the **Output Format** list box, select one of the following options:

   * If you are **granting** access to the country you selected in step 3, select **Apache 2.4.htaccess allow**.

   * If you are **blocking** access to the country you selected in step 3, select **Apache 2.4.htaccess deny**.

6. Click **DOWNLOAD**, and then save the file on your local computer.

7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 for any additional countries for which you want to block or grant access.

8. Open the downloaded file in a text editor, and then copy the entire block of generated text.

   > 📘 Note
   >
   > If you downloaded files for multiple countries, combine all of the text from the files into one block.

9. On your hosting.com account, open the *.htaccess* file in your preferred text editor.

10. Paste the block of text that you copied in step 8 into the *.htaccess* file.

11. Save your changes to the *.htaccess* file. The new configuration takes effect immediately.

## More information

For more information about the **allow** and **deny** directives in Apache, please visit [https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/access.html](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/access.html).

## Related articles

* [Using .htaccess files](/docs/using-htaccess-files)