Geo block for WP plugin

A MU (Must Use) plugin for Wordpress that can be used to block or allow certain countries or continents based on the IP of the visitor.

Installation

The installation consist of 2 parts:

1. Install the plugin
2. Install the MaxMind GeoLite2-Country database.

Plugin installation

Create the mu-plugins directory if this doesn't exist yet:

mkdir wp-content/mu-plugins

Move the geo-block-for-wp directory into the mu-plugins directory. So now you have:

wp-content/mu-plugins/geo-block-for-wp

Now we should add an index.php file to the mu-plugins directory that will load the geo-block-for-wp plugin:

wp-content/mu-plugins/index.php

The content of this file:

<?php
require_once(__DIR__ . '/geo-block-for-wp/geo-block-for-wp.php');

MaxMind GeoLite2-Country database installation

Login or create an account on the website (this is free):

https://www.maxmind.com/en/account/login

After logging in, go to My account and choose Download files under GeoIP2 / GeoLite2. Choose the GeoLite2 Country file. Verify that this file has an .mmdb extension. Place this file inside the geo-block-for-wp directory:

wp-content/mu-plugins/geo-block-for-wp/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb

Configuration

The last thing you need to do is to define the countries or continents and define if they are or aren't allowed to access your site. Note that this is different:

• If you want to only allow the countries that you speficy, you need to set GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_CHECK to ALLOW in wp-config.php.
• If you want to only block the countries that you speficy, you need to set GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_CHECK to BLOCK in wp-config.php.

For example if you want to specify all countries or continents that are allowed to access your website:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_CHECK', 'ALLOW');

Now just add the countries or continents to the wp-config.php file.

Countries:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_COUNTRIES', [
    'NL'
    'BE'
]);

Continents:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_CONTINENTS', [
    'AF',
    'NA'
]);

Note that you can only define countries OR continents. If you define both, the continents will take precedence.

You can also set the message that users who don't have access will see by setting GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_MESSAGE in wp-config.php:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_MESSAGE', 'Sorry you cannot access this website.');

Exception configuration

What needs to be done when an exception occurs can be set as well in the wp-config.php file. You can set either true pr false. Setting to true means that the plugin will exit with an error message. Setting to false (or just not defining this at all) means that the plugin will do nothing and hence the website will be displayed.

Exit or continue if the IP address of the visitor cannot be retrieved:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_DIE_ON_NO_IP', true);

Exit or continue if the IP address of the visitor is not present in the database file - this can for example be the case if you are running locally and the IP address will be a local IP address:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_DIE_ON_ADDRESS_NOT_FOUND', true);

Exit or continue on some other exception:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_DIE_ON_EXCEPTION', true);

Set GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_DB_PATH in the wp-config.php file to change the location of the database file:

define('GEO_BLOCK_FOR_WP_DB_PATH', '/my/path/to/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb');