Title: Determining IP address
Last modified: September 18, 2019

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# Determining IP address

 *  Resolved [Octave Doctor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/octavedoctor/)
 * (@octavedoctor)
 * [6 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/determining-ip-address/)
 * This morning I was blocked from my site (the frontend as well as the admin panel)
   when I went to investigate why it was down (I had received a notification from
   Jetpack plugin that my site was offline). Actually, the page that came up said
   that my access to the site had been limited. I tired using the unblock email,
   which did allow me to the login page. But after entering my credentials it just
   took me right back to the block page. I was forced to disable Wordfence via SFTP.
   The reason for the block or limiting was “Blcoked by login security setting”.
 * I followed the advice in Wordfence documentation to enable the Wordfence Assistant
   and then disable the firewall and reactivate Wordfence. Once I had Wordfence 
   reactivated I took a look at my live traffic logs, and I believe I’ve found the
   cause of the trouble but I’m not sure the best way to resolve it. I currently
   use the free version of Cloudflare CDN, and all traffic to my site is being routed
   through Cloudflare including my own. When I run “whois” on the live traffic hits,
   they all return “Cloudflare” as the NetName and OrgName.
 * The problem with this is that, for some time now, I have been experiencing a 
   large number of brute force attacks using invalid usernames. I have Wordfence
   set up to block all such attempts as at the moment there are no other users. 
   Because all IP address are appearing to come from the same place (Cloudflare),
   my own as well as the hacker’s, I was blocked from my site. I could even see 
   on the live traffic list where a hacker was routed on the same exact IP address
   as me.
 * Currently Wordfence is set to the default “Let Wordfence use the most secure 
   method to get visitor IP addresses. Prevents spoofing and works with most sites.”
   Which obviously is not the right setup for my site. I think that using “X-Forwarded-
   For HTTP header” or “X-Real-IP HTTP header” would be better, but I don’t know
   which one I should use or if it even makes a difference. In addition to the Cloudflare
   free CDN, my hosting provider uses Varnish reverse proxy cache, if that makes
   a difference here.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [WFGerroald](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfgerald/)
 * (@wfgerald)
 * [6 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/determining-ip-address/#post-11950090)
 * Hey [@octavedoctor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/octavedoctor/),
 * I believe you’re correct in the assumption that Wordfence isn’t currently able
   to detect the right IPs. Can you try switching to `CF-Connecting-I` HTTP header
   to see if it can get the correct IPs?
 * Please let me know how it goes.
 * Thanks,
 * Gerroald
 *  Thread Starter [Octave Doctor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/octavedoctor/)
 * (@octavedoctor)
 * [6 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/determining-ip-address/#post-11950193)
 * Hi [@wfgerald](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfgerald/) ,
 * I actually spent some time this morning with the different settings. I tried 
   X-Forwarded-For, X-Real-IP HTTP, and CF-Connecting-IP. They all returned the 
   exact same IPs as the original default setting, all of which pointed to Cloudflare.
 * Until this I was considering to purchase the premium Wordfence, but I can’t risk
   being locked out of my own site again. I have actually just now removed Wordfence
   and chosen a different paid security plugin which does not have any trouble determining
   IPs.
 * Thanks,
    OD
 *  [WFSupport](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfsupport/)
 * (@wfsupport)
 * [6 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/determining-ip-address/#post-11959223)
 * [@od](https://wordpress.org/support/users/od/) Can you please send an email to
   wftest [at] wordfence [dot] com? I need to ask some specific questions to troubleshoot
   this further. Make sure and include a link to this post in the message body and
   your forum username in the subject line. If you could also send a diagnostics
   report to the same address that would be awesome.
 * Tim
 *  [WFGerroald](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfgerald/)
 * (@wfgerald)
 * [6 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/determining-ip-address/#post-12018485)
 * Hey [@octavedoctor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/octavedoctor/),
 * We haven’t heard back from you in a while, so I’ve gone ahead and marked this
   thread as resolved.
 * Please feel free to open another thread if you’re still having issues with Wordfence.
 * Thanks,
 * Gerroald

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Determining IP address’ is closed to new replies.

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## Tags

 * [IP detection](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/ip-detection/)

 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [WFGerroald](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfgerald/)
 * Last activity: [6 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/determining-ip-address/#post-12018485)
 * Status: resolved