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Question about how to access local box for input ...

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barney:
... or something to that effect.

A friend of mine has recently opened a sailing school, ASA certified, all the training bells and whistles.  What he'd like to do is to set up a way for students to input their review(s) at the classroom, after the testing/certification/approval/disapproval has been completed.  I'm accustomed to setting up database backends, but don't have a great deal of experience with front-end work.  My thinking is that I can use the current IP address, assuming PHP can find it, so that the input form(s) visibility is not site-wide.

Question is whether that is a viable concept, or whether I should take some other approach.

The input/review form needs to be available on one machine initially, but not available to the general public, even though on the same site.  However, that same form needs to be available on the Web site, but only to those who have taken a course, whether pass or fail.  I can limit access on the Web with ASA certification values, so that part is not a problem.  However, I'm uncertain as to how to proceed to allow in-class comments w/o having that certification.  Date/time/class can provide appropriate in-house limits to input capability, but I don't have a good feel on how to limit that particular input to that one machine w/o broadcasting it all over the Web.

Sorry if the description is fuzzy, but the whole situation is somewhat undefined <sigh />.

steeladept:
If you mean the web server is the local box they will be accessing for the reviews at the classroom, you can set it up the same way and just refer back to //localhost/ if I get what you are after.  Alternatively you might be able to point to the 127.0.0.1 address which is the loopback address.  If this isn't what you mean, then it is more than just fuzzy and I am scratching my head as to your intent.

barney:
OK, sorry for the confusion ... I just don't deal as well now with 48-hour shifts as a decade ago  :o.

Nope, the server being accessed is the public server, the one everybody sees.  But I need to block input to the comment form from all but former students and one particular machine (or maybe two).

I can limit access to former students via certification numbers they will have received after completing the course(s).  However, that validation, mailed, will be unavailable for a week or two.  I need to allow students that have just taken the class to input comments/critiques from the classroom box.  

I'm just wondering what is the best way to provide that classroom access, whether to attempt IP validation or to create a bogus certification script.

There is no local Web server, so I can't run the route of allowing local input, then FTPing that to the public server ... everything is live at all times  :(.  All comments will be moderated for language, of course, and a few safeguards emplaced to prevent comment spam, e.g. no live links.

Hope that un-fuzzied the original request  :-\, but prolly not  :-[.

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