[PHP] getting the IP address off a visitor
Hi there, I am new to PHP and need some help. I was wondering if there is a way to get hold of the IP address of a site visitor with PHP. I'm trying to develop an interaction where the server would recognise a new visitor from a returning visitor via the IP address. Regards, Sebastian -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] getting the IP address off a visitor
Hi, Not a good idea. 1. in the case of most dial-up users with an ISP, the IP address is usually dynamically assigned, so next time they dial-up (or re-connect) they will more than likely have a different IP address. 2. in the many cases of computers with a static IP (cable/ADSL/etc), the IP address does not necessarily represent a user... think about shared computers in families, in libraries, corporations, net cafe's, etc. 3. Data storage -- eeek! If you get 1000 visitors with upto 15 bytes (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn) each, that's 15k of IP address' you have to search through constantly, without any real way to make it quicker (eg indexing). That may not sound so bad, but perhaps when you reach 3 visitors, it's now upto 450k. Yuk. Typically, return visitors are recognised with a cookie on the browser, which definitely takes care of problem #3... of course it doesn't help with problem #2 (shared computers). Good luck, Justin French on 05/07/02 2:00 AM, Sebastian Marcu ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Hi there, I am new to PHP and need some help. I was wondering if there is a way to get hold of the IP address of a site visitor with PHP. I'm trying to develop an interaction where the server would recognise a new visitor from a returning visitor via the IP address. Regards, Sebastian -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] getting the IP address off a visitor
Sebastian, Yes, look at the data returned by running phpinfo() and you will see it. As discussed very recently on this list, an IP address is not a good way to determine whether this is a new user or not. I suggest you look in the recent archives for the discussion on this topic. HTH Chris Sebastian Marcu wrote: Hi there, I am new to PHP and need some help. I was wondering if there is a way to get hold of the IP address of a site visitor with PHP. I'm trying to develop an interaction where the server would recognise a new visitor from a returning visitor via the IP address. Regards, Sebastian -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] getting the IP address off a visitor
On Mon, 8 Jul 2002, Justin French wrote: 1. in the case of most dial-up users with an ISP, the IP address is usually dynamically assigned, so next time they dial-up (or re-connect) they will more than likely have a different IP address. 2. in the many cases of computers with a static IP (cable/ADSL/etc), the IP address does not necessarily represent a user... think about shared computers in families, in libraries, corporations, net cafe's, etc. 3. Data storage -- eeek! If you get 1000 visitors with upto 15 bytes (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn) each, that's 15k of IP address' you have to search through constantly, without any real way to make it quicker (eg indexing). That may not sound so bad, but perhaps when you reach 3 visitors, it's now upto 450k. Yuk. Well, an IP address is only 4 bytes, and they can be sorted and indexed, but otherwise I completely agree with your points. Using IP addresses to recognize people is doomed to failure. miguel -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
