You can find this section under Security > Block IP Addresses in the IRP Admin left navigation menu.
You can block IP addresses from accessing your website. This may be necessary if you receive fraudulent orders: blocking their IP address prevents the user from gaining access to your website to place these orders.
This method is restricted in the following ways:
- This method prevents only fraudulent orders placed by static IP addresses. Dynamic IP addresses change frequently and it can be difficult to manage and add all these as blocked addresses.
- This method blocks access only to your web pages; access to other assets such as images will not be blocked. If you need all access to be blocked, contact your Systems Integrator (SI) Support Team.
The BlockedIPAddresses.aspx page appears as follows:
The main grid contains the following details:
- From IP Address: This shows the start of the IP address range that has been blocked.
- To IP Address: This shows the end of the IP address range that has been blocked.
- Number of IPs Blocked / Excluded: This shows the number of IP Addresses that have been blocked or excluded within the range.
- Blocked Since / Excluded Since: This shows the date and time when the IP address was first blocked.
- Notes: This shows any Admin notes that explain why the IP was blocked.
- Added From IRP World: (True / False) this indicates whether or not the IP Address was imported from IRP World.
- Origin: This indicates if the IP Address is a Standard IP, a Good Crawler or a Bad Crawler.
- Edit: Click this button to view details of the IP address. You can also click the Allow In IRP button to ensure that this IP address can access the IRP even though it has been blocked on IRP World.
To block an IP address, follow these steps:
- Go to Security > Block IP Addresses in the IRP Admin left navigation menu.
- Check which IP addresses are already blocked by viewing the main grid in the IP Addresses Blocked From Any Website Access section. You can also use the search bar at the top of the page and, if you expand 'Other Options' you can filter your results by Standard IPs, Good Crawlers and Bad Crawlers.
- Click the Block IPs button at the top of the page.
- Select either Single IP Address or IP Range.
- Enter a valid IP address into the boxes or enter a valid IP address range in the From and To boxes:
- (Optional) Type any notes in the Notes section to explain why you have blocked the IP address or range.
- For a single IP address, select the Origin of the IP address you wish to exclude. If you select 'Good Crawler' or 'Bad Crawler' it will add this IP to the crawler table if it does not exist otherwise it will link this IP to an existing crawler for this IP. If you select 'Standard IP' it will block this IP for security reasons without a crawler linked to it.
- Click the Block IP Address button or the Block IP Range button to block the addresses.
Any IP addresses that are already blocked are shown in the main grid. If you want to delete addresses, click the Delete All IPs button at the top of the page.
Downloading and Deleting
You can use the following buttons at the top of the page:
- Download Blocked IPs: Import the Blocked IP Addresses for security reasons from IRP World. This will update your list with the latest version from IRP World, by deleting the IP Addresses which no longer exists in IRP World, update any changes made and also add any new Blocked IP Addresses.
- Delete All IPs: Click to remove all usage tracking of blocked IPs, exclude IPs and crawlers.
Notes on Crawlers
All new bots or crawlers that visit your site will be recorded in IRP Admin and flagged as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on whether they follow the robots.txt instructions.
- Bad Crawler: Crawlers are considered bad if they ignore the robots.txt file and visit pages and links that they have been instructed not to.
- Good Crawler: Crawlers are considered good if they obey the robots.txt file and visit only pages and links that they are allowed to.
