Common use cases

Block someone placing fake orders

A visitor keeps placing COD orders they never accept. If you know their IP address (for example from Settings → System → Activity Logs or your payment gateway's fraud report), add an IP Block rule. Set Expires At a few days out if you think the address may later belong to someone else — mobile networks reuse IP addresses often.

Sell only within India

Add one Country Allow rule with IN. Every other country is then blocked. Remember this also blocks your own team or customers when they are abroad, unless you add an IP Allow for them.

Block a few countries

Add a Country Block rule for each country, for example where you see many card-testing attempts. Everyone else can still shop.

Let one person through a country block

Keep the country rule and add an IP Allow rule with that person's IP address. IP Allow always wins.

Close the store to everyone except your office (while testing)

Add an IP Block for 0.0.0.0/0 and another for ::/0 (these cover every address), then an IP Allow for your office IP. Delete the two block rules when you're done. For a proper "coming soon" page, use your theme instead — blocked visitors see a broken store, not a friendly message.

Temporary block during an attack

Add the rule with Expires At set to tomorrow. It stops working by itself at that time.