Some teams use third-party services like Cloudflare for this purpose, since they provide built-in geo-fencing features. But that also means routing all traffic through their servers, which can affect performance in production environments.

If you're already using a reverse proxy like NGINX or Apache, you can set up geo-fencing on your own without needing third-party services. This approach gives you more control, eliminates external dependencies, and allows you to log and analyze traffic according to your preferences.

In this blog, I’ll walk through how I set up geo-fencing using NGINX and a GeoIP2 database on a self-hosted Ubuntu server.

Requirements

• Ubuntu server

• NGINX

• GeoIP2 database (from IPInfo)

  Step 1: Install NGINX and Required Packages

  First, make sure NGINX is installed. Then install the required modules and tools:

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install libmaxminddb0 libmaxminddb-dev mmdb-bin nginx-module-geoip2 -y
  

  Step 2: Enable the GeoIP2 Module in NGINX

  Edit the main NGINX config file:

    sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  

  At the top of the file, load the geoip2 module:

    load_module modules/ngx_http_geoip2_module.so;
  
    http {
        ...
    }
  

  ---

  Step 3: Download the GeoIP Database

  We'll use IPInfo’s GeoIP2-compatible database here. Create a folder for it:

    sudo mkdir -p /etc/nginx/geoip
    cd /etc/nginx/geoip
  

  Download the database (replace {Token} with your actual token from ipinfo.io):

    wget "https://ipinfo.io/data/ipinfo_lite.mmdb?token={Token}" -O ipinfo_lite.mmdb
  

  ---

  Step 4: Configure GeoIP2 in NGINX

  Now we’ll configure NGINX to use this database and block access based on country.

  In your server or site config:

    http {
  
        geoip2 /etc/nginx/geoip/ipinfo_lite.mmdb {
            auto_reload 5m;
            $ipinfo_country_code default=IN source=$remote_addr country_code;
        }
  
        map $ipinfo_country_code $allow {
            default no;
            IN yes;  # Allow only India (IN)
        }
    }
  

  Edit in domain config

    server {
        ... 
        location / {   
            if ($allow != yes) {
                return 403;
            }
        }
    }
  

  This setup blocks all countries except India. You can adjust the country code as per your needs.

  ---

  Step 5: Add Logging for Analysis

  For debugging or analytics, it helps to log request info in a structured format. Add this to your NGINX config:

  
    log_format geo_csv '"$remote_addr","$ipinfo_country_code","$time_local","$request_method","$host","$request_uri","$allow_country","$body_bytes_sent","$http_user_agent"';
    access_log /var/log/nginx/geo_access.log geo_csv;
  

  This will create logs that you can easily analyze or import into tools like Excel or ELK Stack.

  ---

  Step 6: Reload NGINX

  After all changes are done, test your config and reload:

    sudo nginx -t
    sudo systemctl reload nginx
  

  ---

  Wrap-up

  That’s it. You now have a basic geo-fencing setup running on your own infrastructure using NGINX. No need to rely on external services like Cloudflare.

  This setup is ideal if:

  • You want full control over traffic.

  • You don’t want to route requests through third-party proxies.

  • You need detailed logs for auditing or analytics.

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