Knowledgebase
How to redirect requests from particular IP addresses or networks with mod_rewrite
If you want to, you can redirect content only for requests that come from a certain IP address(es) or from a whole network of IP addresses. You can do this with a few mod_rewrite rules put in an .htaccess file on your hosting account.
For example, let's say that you want all requests from the IP address 10.20.30.45 to yourdomain.com/index.php to be redirected to yourdomain.com/folder/index2.php, then you can put the following rules in the .htaccess file that's in the public_html directory on your hosting account:
#Redirect requests from a single IP address RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^10\.20\.30\.45 RewriteRule ^index\.php$ /folder/index2.php [L]When the client with the listed IP address opens yourdomain.com/index.php, he/she will be redirected to yourdomain.com/folder/index2.php. Requests from all other IP addresses will not be redirected. This is achieved thanks to the RewriteCond directive that checks the remote address and if it matches the specified IP, then the RewriteRule is applied.
If you want to redirect requests from a couple or a few different IP addresses, you can include more RewriteCond directives and use the OR flag. For example:
#Redirect requests from a few different IP addresses RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^10\.20\.30\.45 [OR] RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^65\.220\.12\.31 [OR] RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^125\.62\.81\.121 RewriteRule ^index\.php$ /folder/index2.php [L]This will redirect requests to yourdomain.com/index.php coming from any of the three listed IP addresses. Without the OR flag at the end of the first two RewriteCond directives these rules would be meaningless. The OR flag tells the RewriteRule that if any of the three conditions matches, then the redirect should be performed.
Of course, you can specify a whole range of IP addresses. Just use the first one to three numbers instead of the whole IP. For example:
#Redirect whole networks of IP addresses to an external URL RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^10\.20\.30 [OR] RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^125\.62 RewriteRule ^folder/(.*) http://anotherdomain.com/folder/$1 [R,L]will redirect requests from all IP addresses starting with 10.20.30 and those that begin with 125.62. In the above example, unlike the previous ones, the redirect is to an external URL; request for resources inside yourdomain.com/folder are redirected to anotherdomain.com/folder.
It's also possible to make the redirect to apply to request from everybody except for the specified IP address(es) or ranges of IP addresses. This can be done by putting an exclamation mark before the pattern in the RewriteCond directive. For example:
#Redirect request for everybody except for the specified IPs RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^10\.20\.30\.45 RewriteRule ^folder/(.*) http://anotherdomain.com/folder/$1 [R,L]All requests for resources inside yourdomain.com/folder will be redirected to anotherdomain.com/folder except for those requests that come from the IP address 10.20.30.45.
For basic information on the mod_rewrite directives read the tutorial on mod_rewrite.