It is based on the requesting IP address.

In order to implement it properly, you'd have to find/write some IP address utilities which actually get an IP address, convert it to binary, then match it up with the subnet mask to see if it's within those ranges. I've done it before, and it's rarely pretty.

Before you get involved in that I'd consider the worth - IP addresses change all the time, different ISPs run through different proxies and even here I have a VPN service I pay £5 a month for that can route me through hundreds of different countries should I so wish it to.

Reliable geolocation is extremely difficult to do, and every time I've seen it implemented it's caused as many issues as it's solved. If you do decide it's worth it though, I'd Google around to see if anyone's already written any IP address utils for ColdFusion.

It depends on why you don't want people watching the videos to be honest.

Don't get me wrong, if you want something basic like BBC iPlayer does to stop you watching it from the States, you just need to find an accurate listing of known US IPs and only accept those. However you do need to be aware that by no means is it a guaranteed system, so if it's because you're hoping to peddle anti-European propoganda, probably not the best idea

If you're running IIS7 there's a built-in IP address filter for doing exactly this, might be easier to use that than try and re-invent the wheel in ColdFusion, which will be far slower than the .NET Module in Integrated Pipeline mode that IIS uses.

A google search on "determine geography by ip address" would help you.  There are some services to which you can subscribe.  I also noticed a site that offers a free set of data that you can import into a database and then use it.

cf_junkie wrote:

 

Hi everyone. I have seen some sites that have restrictions on viewing video and such. Was wondering how its done and if we can do that with CF? I have some videos and files that i only want people in North America to view.

Get a Geo IP database. The best and most comprehensive ones come at a price. Once you buy, you will usually get updates free of charge, or at a small additional premium. Search the web and compare price, frequency of updates, quality of service, recommendations, and so on.

Remember, I said database. Then you have full control, and this enables you to perform fast look-ups for each visitor. I would strongly advise against any solutions, like web services, which require you to perform the look-up on somebody else's server.