There are some risks associated with allowing readers to post comments:
| · | Some
readers will constantly post inappropriate, rude or off-topic comments. |
| · | Some
comments will be "spam", like the unsolicited advertising you get via email |
In most cases it is sufficient to delete these comments. However, when a reader is persistent in posting obnoxious or spam comments, you may find yourself constantly deleting those comments. In such cases, you might want to take the more drastic measure of blocking comments from that reader's IP address.
About IP Addresses
Every computer connected to the Internet is assigned an Internet Protocol address, or IP address for short. IP addresses computers to locate one another on the Internet, so that they can exchange data.
IP addresses are typically expressed as a set of four numbers, each between 0 and 255 inclusive, separated by periods. An example IP address is 192.168.1.1.
Some computers, particularly those that serve out large amounts information to the Internet, are assigned permanent IP addresses. Others, such as computers in homes and small businesses connected to the Internet via their phone lines or home broadband services such as DSL or cable modem are assigned temporary IP addresses. How often these temporary IP addresses change varies; in the case of computers that connect to the Internet via phone, their IP address changes every time they dial in to the Internet Service Provider. In the case of computers connected to the Internet through "always-on" connections such as DSL and cable modem, they keep IP addresses assigned to them for various lengths of time: for days, weeks and even months.
Since many computers' IP addresses change from time to time and since IP addresses are associated with computers and not people, blocking comments from specific IP addresses is not a guaranteed way to stop unwanted comments. Although you can block comments from an offending commenter's IP address, if that commenter's computer's IP address changes or if the commenter uses different computers in different locations, his or her comments will still get through.
In spite of these drawbacks, blocking comments sent from certain IP addresses has proven to be effective in many cases, especially "spam" comments sent by unscrupulous advertisers.
How Do I Block Comments From Certain IP Addresses?
Suppose you receive a "spam" comment that has nothing to do with the article you posted and is simply junk advertising:
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Let's suppose that you want to block future comments from the IP address from which this comment originated. Go to the Article Comments page for this comment and find the comment in the Comments list:
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Click on the IP address, which appears after IP: on the line immediately after the comment title. In this case, the commenter's IP address is 216.126.80.97. You will be taken to the Firewall part of the Security & Settings section of your control panel. The IP address text box will already be filled in with the commenter's IP address. You can enter a note in the Notes text area:
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Click the Add IP Address button to add the IP Address to the list of blocked IP addresses. After you click the Add IP Address button, you should see this at the top of the page:
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...and the IP Address Blocking area should look something like this:
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