Blocking an IP Address Using cPanel
This method completely blocks an IP address from accessing or viewing your website. You should use this method when you want to protect your WordPress site from hacking attempts and DDOS attacks.
First, you need to login to cPanel dashboard of your hosting account. Now scroll down to the security section and click on ‘IP Address Deny Manager’ icon.
This will take you to the IP Address Deny Manager tool. Here you can add the IP addresses you want to block. You can add a single IP address or an IP range and then click on the add button.
You can come back to the same page again if you ever need to unblock those IP addresses.
When IP Address Blocking Doesn’t Work – Automate It!
Blocking an IP address would work if you are just blocking some basic hacking attempts, specific users, or users from specific regions or countries.
However, many hacking attempts and attacks are made using a wide range of random IP addresses from all over the world. It is impossible for you to keep up with all those random IP addresses.
That’s when you need a Web Application Firewall (WAF). For the WPBeginner website, we use Sucuri. It is a website security service that protects your website against such attacks using a website application firewall.
Basically, all your website traffic goes through their servers where it is examined for suspicious activity. It automatically blocks suspicious IP addresses from reaching your website altogether. See how Sucuri helped us block 450,000 WordPress attacks in 3 months.
We hope this article helped you learn how to easily block IP addresses in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress security guide for beginners.
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