What are the potential pitfalls when trying to protect PHP pages from external access?

Potential pitfalls when trying to protect PHP pages from external access include relying solely on client-side checks, not properly securing server configurations, and not validating user input. To mitigate these risks, it is important to implement server-side checks, use secure authentication methods, and sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection attacks.

<?php
// Check if the request is coming from an allowed IP address
$allowed_ips = array('127.0.0.1', '::1');
$client_ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

if (!in_array($client_ip, $allowed_ips)) {
    header('HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden');
    exit('Access denied');
}

// Your protected PHP code here
?>