How do I deliver different content to country IP addresses?

Question

We have been asked by a client to deliver different content (warnings, "this page unavailable" pages, etc) to French users due to a new French law. This needs to be implemented by Jan 1.

On the server side, how is this done? We are running IIS on Windows Server 2008.

EDIT: Yes, I know to use a geolocation service. But are there settings in IIS to do this with? Or do I need to have the entire site rewritten?

[GeoLite Country](http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geolite) is free, well-maintained, and you can download the entire database any time you want. — David Schwartz, Dec 06 '12 at 18:54
Why do you want to use an IP address for that? Isn't that what the browser culture setting is for? — Greg Askew, Dec 06 '12 at 19:05
Greg: Because the browser culture setting isn't legally binding, I don't think. We are legally protected if we make a good faith effort at geolocation. — easyegoism, Dec 06 '12 at 19:40

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 06 '12 at 18:49

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Your best bet is to implement a GeoIP lookaside module somehow. The specifics of how to do so will depend on what module you use and what language your web site is in (e.g. PHP, ASP, Perl, Python, etc). It's not completely follproof, but it should provide sufficient evidence of a good-faith attempt to comply with the law to avoid legal trouble. (Please note I am not a lawyer, so if you're worried about legal issues you should consult with an experienced attorney.)

answered Dec 06 '12 at 18:49

John

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This sounds like what one of the developers wants to do as well. I'll check on what the best solution is for the legal status. – easyegoism Dec 06 '12 at 19:51

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 06 '12 at 19:05

There are several companies which provide databases, that allow you to detect the country of the user based on the IP.

It is my impression after doing research that MaxMind is the most popular one. They give you the data which you can import into a SQL database, and use that to do calculations that determine what the location of the user is.

I've used MaxMind with success, but am otherwise un-affiliated with them.

How do I deliver different content to country IP addresses?

2 Answers2