How to block a country's IP ranges in htaccess

The .htaccess file is a hidden text file within your hosting account that can be very powerful. It is designed so that you can modify it to change the behavior of your website that normally would take higher access beyond your account. It acts as a liason between your domain and the server and can perform many functions.

The cpanel has an IP blocking mechanism to help you secure your site from individuals who you deem suspicious or malicious. This works fine for a single IP or even a handful. It is not advisable however, if you want to block an entire country.

Many people want to block certain countries for different reasons. Some coutnries are more notorious for having hackers or spammers. Other people want to block a country simply because they do not do business with them. In any case, you can set the code within the htaccss file to block the IP ranges of certain countries. Follow the instructions below to perform this task.

Blocking a country from accessing your site via htaccess

1. First you will need to collect the data. You want to find a reliable list of IPs for the country you want to block. Doing a search, we find that you can get your deny list generated at IP2Location's free visitor-blocker generator. Using this tool will let you download a text file with the code needed to block a country. In our example, we randomly chose Algeria. The output format we chose is the Apache .htaccess deny. Follow the steps to download your file.
2. Open your file in the text editor of your choice and highlight and copy the information in the file.
3. Next, we will need to log into your cPanel to access the htaccess file.
4. Find the Files category and click on the File Manager icon.
   
5. A popup box will appear. For the primary domain, click on the Web Root radio button. For addon domains, click on the dropdown and find your desired addon domain name. Be sure the checkbox next to Show Hidden Files is checked. Click the Go button to enter the File Manager.
   
6. You should now be in the root folder of the domain you chose. Look for the .htaccess file and right click on it. This brings up a menu. Find and click on the Edit option. If you get a popup box, simply find and click the Edit button in the lower right corner to continue to the editor.
   
7. You are now in the htaccess editor. Paste your code into your htaccess so that it forces the visitor to download that type of file.The code should be formatted similar to that below but be much longer. Some countries like China and the US can have thousands of lines in their block code
   <Limit GET HEAD POST>
   order deny,allow
   deny from 81.52.168.0/23
   deny from 188.138.10.163/32
   deny from 188.138.78.129/32
   allow from all
   </Limit>
8. Be sure to hit the Save Changes button in the upper right corner to save your new htaccess configuration. Now any IP from those ranges are now denied access to your site.