Block a page based on cookies / IP address?

8 replies
Hi,

I wonder if you can help me

We are about to launch another service (a live Trade Room for the trading niche) and we wanted to offer people a free trial of our service for 1 week.

The risk with offering a free trial, is that people can game the system and just take trial after trial after trial, just changing their email address each time.

What we were hoping to do was password protect the live feed and change the password every week. Then we put this password on a page that has a filter redirect on it which redirects anyone who has a cookie from a previous trial, or, any IP address that has had a trial before as well.

Could you point me to some code that would allow me to do this?

I know that some countdown timers (used for launches) have this built in but we don't want to stick a big timer on the page as that is confusing.

Thanks for your help.

Pete
#address #based #block #cookies #page
  • Profile picture of the author kdavies
    Short answer is you can capture someone's IP address using PHP by using $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9056023].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Peterdeg
      Originally Posted by kdavies View Post

      Short answer is you can capture someone's IP address using PHP by using $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].
      Thanks for this. This might actually be useful
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9057518].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author David B
    If you are checking IP addresses remember to watch for proxies. If someone is behind a proxy they may legitimately have a different IP each time. So you may want to check on the subnets.

    Another thought is a unique key for each trial sent via an autoresponder so at least you ensure all the emails are valid accounts rather than a single password for everyone each week. By the way if you are changing the password weekly what happens for someone who signs up the day before the password changes?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9056090].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author K Meier
      You need to know that with free trials, there is no 100% secure way to keep users from multiple sign ups.
      While cookie and IP blocking is definitely one of the first thing that can be done to prevent such an abuse, they are at the same time the two easiest to things to work around. Cookies can be deleted and Firefox/Chrome even offer an incognito mode where no cookies are being permanently saved.
      IP address usually changes automatically several times a week, or can change when restarting the router. If a user has a static IP, then he can simply use a proxy (such as web proxy, SOCKS proxies, VPNs etc). Another way is of course simply using public WiFi or your phone.

      In the end you will have to balance it out and ask yourself, is it worth spending hours and hours on trying to prevent such abuses, because no mater what you do, people who really want to get in for free and abuse the trial system, will get in for sure.

      A good alternative is to set up a payment plan on sign up that includes a 7 day free trial, and after that 7 days if the user does not cancel, their paypal/credit card will automatically be charged.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9057065].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Peterdeg
        Originally Posted by K Meier View Post

        You need to know that with free trials, there is no 100% secure way to keep users from multiple sign ups.
        While cookie and IP blocking is definitely one of the first thing that can be done to prevent such an abuse, they are at the same time the two easiest to things to work around. Cookies can be deleted and Firefox/Chrome even offer an incognito mode where no cookies are being permanently saved.
        IP address usually changes automatically several times a week, or can change when restarting the router. If a user has a static IP, then he can simply use a proxy (such as web proxy, SOCKS proxies, VPNs etc). Another way is of course simply using public WiFi or your phone.

        In the end you will have to balance it out and ask yourself, is it worth spending hours and hours on trying to prevent such abuses, because no mater what you do, people who really want to get in for free and abuse the trial system, will get in for sure.

        A good alternative is to set up a payment plan on sign up that includes a 7 day free trial, and after that 7 days if the user does not cancel, their paypal/credit card will automatically be charged.
        Thanks for that. Yeah, the IP & Cookie thing is not water tight but the market is not tech-savvy so there shouldn't be too much of an issue. The main purpose is to stop everyone from being able to take multiple trials. A few will get through the net but there is nothing we can do about that.

        We'll eventually move onto a paid trial as that is what we do with another service we are running. The issue for now is that each click costs $3 so if we have any issues getting them to pay for a trial we could lose a ton of money to start off with.

        Thanks for all your help
        Signature
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9057530].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Peterdeg
      Originally Posted by David B View Post

      If you are checking IP addresses remember to watch for proxies. If someone is behind a proxy they may legitimately have a different IP each time. So you may want to check on the subnets.

      Another thought is a unique key for each trial sent via an autoresponder so at least you ensure all the emails are valid accounts rather than a single password for everyone each week. By the way if you are changing the password weekly what happens for someone who signs up the day before the password changes?
      Yeah, we might have to change the password daily but the theory would remian the same. Thanks for your help though
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9057522].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    Get them to sign up with a credit card and address and block subsequent trials for matches.
    Signature

    Robin



    ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9057674].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author lluporini
    I agree with Robin. But you'll need to decide what works best for you purpose.

    Asking for a CC or alternatively setting up a paypal trial suscription will leave some people outside. The ones that do not want to give you a CC may take your trial offer if you do not ask for it.

    Are you more trying to put your product to test or are you looking for potential buyers?

    Best,
    Luis
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9061968].message }}

Trending Topics