There is an error in this:

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>

Only one Order directive per .htaccess file -- The last one overrides the previous ones.

Similarly, any conflict between <Limit> containers will result in the last one that applies being used.

There is no need to enclose the Deny from's in a <Limit> container, so I'm not sure why you're doing that. For example, PUTs and DELETEs will be allowed from your listed IP addresses with the code as-posted.

Also, see <LimitExcept>, which may be useful to you.

I'd suggest:

# Allow all to fetch robots.txt and custom 403 error page
SetEnvIf Request_URI "^/(robots\.txt¦my_custom_403_page\.html)$" allow-it
#
Order Deny,Allow
#
# Allow all to fetch robots.txt and custom 403 error page
<Limit GET>
Allow from env=allow-it
</Limit>
#
# Deny all methods except for GET, HEAD, and POST (HEAD is implied by GET -- see documentation)
<LimitExcept GET POST>
Deny from all
</LimitExcept>
#
# Deny from various country's IP address ranges
Deny from 41.204.224.0/19
Deny from 41.205.160.0/19
...
Deny from 213.166.160.0/19
Deny from 213.181.64.0/19

Replace the broken pipe character in the SetEnvIf directive above with a solid pipe character before use; Posting on this forum modifies the pipe characters.

Jim

[edited by: jdMorgan at 7:51 pm (utc) on Dec. 31, 2007]

There is an error in this:

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>

Okay, I give up, what's the error? (I'm a web designer and don't know much about .htaccess files, you may have deduced.)

deny from all
allow from all

the error is either/or NOT both.

Nice thread.

I just got one question. Is there a way to allow bots like googlebot to come in while sending "page cannot resolve" to all other users from that country ip address range?