Thanks for the explanation. Is there a reason that Coppermine does not have a plugin or in-built support for IP recognition? Isn't there room for expansion?
Perhaps, most users that use Coppermine may use it to host their gallery, which is great, but what about educational users. I hardly think I am unique in making a request. I know I am not. I have seen quite a number of requests on this on from different places. Who got our back?
This is comparing apples and oranges, but Drupal has several pluguins that limit access to website based on IP address. A user account is required. Once an account is created by the admin, then the IP address of the user is entered in a private box that nobody sees only the dmin. If the user uses the IP address, the Drupal plugin logs them in automatically to the website. The user does not login. Can a similar function be created in Coppermine?
You can send out access keys, limit ip ranges or individual addresses or just use a simple .htaccess all of which would prevent any unauthorised user access to any chosen directory structure.
How do you limit IP ranges? Please, give an actual example.
For the "simple .htaccess" you referred to, how do you create it? Please keep in mind that a school have 15 IP addresses. So if you have 20 schools, you are looking at 300 IP addresses.
Can the IP recognition also protect content? It seems like a protection is needed to ensure that right IP have access to the website, as well as its content.
There may even be applications available to automate that task but that really is something we cannot support you on.
Any suggestions?
Feedback welcome.