Advice needed: Remove older blocks?

  • Resolved mikesarokin

    (@mikesarokin)


    8 years ago

    I have been using the free version of Wordfence for about a year. I check my site(s) often and block potential hackers by domain name or ip range. My blocked list is getting long. I am getting concerned that at some point I will begin to have some performance issues. My sites are small business and personal sites that do not get a lot of traffic.

    Question: Since we get are behind 30 days in the Wordfence block list … is it “relatively” safe to remove blocks that are let’s say 60 days old?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • wfalaa

    (@wfalaa)

    8 years ago

    Hi @mikesarokin

    I don’t recommend permanent blocking for IPs in particular because IPs are dynamically assigned on the internet and after while you might be blocking a legit IP request, so yes, you can unblock these old IPs you have currently.

    Thanks.

    Thread Starter mikesarokin

    (@mikesarokin)

    8 years ago

    Thanks for the advice. My question really is should I remove my blocking rules (no matter whether they are IP address or hostname based) after 30+ days since the free version is 30 days behind the premium version Wordfence rules?

    wfasa

    (@wfasa)

    8 years ago

    Hi @mikesarokin!
    Firewall rules match specific attack patterns. That the free version gets Firewall rules with a 30 day delay compared to premium users has no bearing on what manual blocks you should put in place. There is no way to manually compensate for that delay by adding or removing manual IP blocks.

    We do not recommend permanently blocking large amounts of IPs. It will eventually slow down your site and it does not keep your site safer because as Alaa explained, IPs change ownership and location constantly. My recommendation would be to remove all permanent blocks and set “Rate limiting” to block for a reasonably long period, perhaps 5 days or so. That way your list of blocked IPs will keep changing naturally and not grow too large.

    Best of luck for now mike!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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  • Last activity: 8 years ago
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