This redirect doesn't work ?

[Dexie]

Can anyone see any reason why the redirects below wouldn't work please ?

RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymlinks

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^120\.50\.18\. [OR]
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^121\.96\.171\. [OR]
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^217\.196\.17\. [OR]
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^78\.147\.174\.
RewriteRule /403.php [L,R=301]

[Dexie]

I've tested it with my IP address, but it still never takes me to the 403.php page ? ? I'm almost 100% sure I've followed the instructions in these threads.

Any help much appreciated.

Dexie

[g1smd]

Your RewriteRule is looking for a URL request like

www.example.com/<anything-or-nothing>/403.php

and fails to specify a new URL to redirect to.

Even if your code had worked, it would have sent a 301 response back, and not a 403 response.

Omitting the IP checks (add those back in yourself) the rule should be something like:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/403\.php
RewriteRule .* - [F]

ErrorDocument 403 /403.php

[Dexie]

Thanks for that, it's appreciated. The request is just to affect unwanted IP's. I still want any good IP's that have just typed in the wrong address to get a 404 and then redirect to the home page after a short message to say that they will be redirected to the home page in a few seconds. Does what you suggest affect that at all please?

[Dexie]

Anyone ?

[g1smd]

The 404 ErrorDocument should be served at the originally requested URL, should return a 404 HTTP status, a plain text human readable error message, and optionally some clickable links to related content.

It should not "redirect" anywhere, especially not to the home page.

[Dexie]

Thanks for the info. I'm getting a little confused as I feel a little out of my depth here ;-( I know on one of my sites, if a user types a wrong url into the address bar, it takes them to an error page, then after 5 seconds, it refreshes them to the home page.

[g1smd]

Ah, the refresh is likely using javascript or the meta refresh element. That's generally not a good idea. It can confuse humans a searchengines alike.