Restricting access to messaging channels by IP address

Support with

Live chat and messaging Team, Professional, or Enterprise








Note: The feature described in this article is similar to banning visitors by IP address in live chat.

Admins can block all end users from a specified IP address from conducting messaging
conversations with your AI or human agents. Messaging channel bans can be applied to IP
addresses in Admin Center, or from messaging conversations in Agent Workspace.
This article includes the following topics:


Understanding what happens when an IP address is banned from messaging channels
Banning IP addresses in Admin Center
Banning IP addresses in a messaging conversation in Agent Workspace


Related articles:


About banning IP addresses from messaging
channels
Managing IP addresses banned from messaging
channels
Accessing and using the Banned IP addresses
page in Admin Center




Understanding what happens when an IP address is banned from messaging channels

Banning an IP address from accessing your messaging channels:

Prevents any users with the banned IP address from connecting with
your Web Widget, iOS SDK, and Android SDK channels.
Adds it to the Banned IP addresses page.
Adds the action to the audit log.

Banning an IP address does not notify the end user that their IP address has been
banned. End users, however, do experience a change in behavior in the Web Widget or
Mobile SDK channels. See About banning IP addresses from messaging
channels.



Banning IP addresses in Admin Center



Admins and agents with the right permissions can ban IP addresses
from the Banned IP addresses page.
To ban an IP address from the Banned IP addresses page

In Admin Center, click
People in the sidebar, then select Restrictions > Banned IP
addresses.
Click Ban IP address.
On the Add a banned IP page, add the following
information:

IP address (required): Enter the IP address or
range you want to ban. Use valid IPv4 formatting for individual
IP addresses. See Specifying a range of IP addresses for adding a
multiple addresses.

Reason (required): Use the drop-down to select
a reason for banning the address.

Additional comments: Enter a comment (up to 500
characters) with relevant information about the IP address or
the ban.


Click Ban. The IP address is added to the banned IP list.





Specifying a range of IP addresses

You can specify ranges of IP addresses. Use valid IPv4 addresses, along with the
methods below, to specify a range:



Use asterisk (*) wildcards. An IP address consists
of four numbers separated by periods, such as 192.168.0.1. You can
substitute a single asterisk character (*) for any number group to
let Zendesk know that it should accept any value in that space. For
example, 192.*.*.* allows any IP address whose first number is
192.


Use IP subnet mask syntax. For example,
192.168.1.0/25 specifies all the IP addresses between 192.168.1.0
and 192.168.1.127.







Banning IP addresses in a messaging conversation in Agent Workspace

If device metadata is displayed in Agent Workspace, you can ban IP addresses from the
ticket interface. The option to ban an IP address appears in the Device information
section of the Customer context panel.



Note: End-user device information must be
displayed in the Customer context panel to view and ban IP addresses in Agent
Workspace. If device information isn’t displayed, IP addresses can only be
banned from the Banned IP addresses page in Admin
Center.

To ban an IP address in Agent Workspace

In Agent Workspace, click the User icon ( ) on the side of the ticket. This opens
customer context in the context panel.
Expand the Device information section.
Click Ban IP.



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