Title: [Plugin: Better WP Security] Server type not recognized
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# [Plugin: Better WP Security] Server type not recognized

 *  Resolved [pkolenbr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pkolenbr/)
 * (@pkolenbr)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-better-wp-security-server-type-not-recognized/)
 * I’ve installed this plugin on our WP site on a linux Debian 6.0 server using 
   the default Apache 2.2.16.
 * Problem: the plugin doesn’t recognize the server type and refuses to setup correctly.
   On almost all settings I’m trying to change it returns the error:
 * Your webserver is unsupported. You must use Apache, LiteSpeed or NGINX to make
   use of these rules.
 * When I’m looking at the detected settings it shows:
 *  Server / Website IP Address: 10.50.60.10
    Server Type: Operating System: Linux
   Browser Compression Supported: gzip, deflate
 * How does detect the plugin the server type? Is there a setting I’m overlooking?
   Please help!
 * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/better-wp-security/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/better-wp-security/)

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

 *  [Bit51 (part of the iThemes family)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bit51/)
 * (@bit51)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-better-wp-security-server-type-not-recognized/#post-2935468)
 * It uses the $_SERVER[‘SERVER_SOFTWARE’] php variable to determine if apache is
   installed. Can you echo this correctly in a test file?
 *  Thread Starter [pkolenbr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pkolenbr/)
 * (@pkolenbr)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-better-wp-security-server-type-not-recognized/#post-2935487)
 * It returns an empty string. If I try SERVER-SIGNATURE instead it shows just “
   Server at …” instead of “Apache Server at …”.
    Same when I look in phpinfo(),
   the SERVER-SOFTWARE field shows empty. So I guess some security option prevents
   this field from showing up, it could be suhosin or mod_security. I’ll see if 
   I can find out.
 * Is there any workaround forcing BWPS to recognize the server as Apache?
 *  [Bit51 (part of the iThemes family)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bit51/)
 * (@bit51)
 * [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-better-wp-security-server-type-not-recognized/#post-2935497)
 * Sorry, no work around currently (I would be afraid of what could happen if I 
   allowed folks to override that one). If you really want you could search for 
   SERVER_SOFTWARE in the plugin code and replace the value of apache with ” which
   might help you however keep in mind that on every upgrade you would have to reapply
   the changes.

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

The topic ‘[Plugin: Better WP Security] Server type not recognized’ is closed to
new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/better-wp-security/assets/icon.svg?rev=2980272)
 * [Solid Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/reviews/)

## Tags

 * [server](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/server/)

 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Bit51 (part of the iThemes family)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bit51/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-better-wp-security-server-type-not-recognized/#post-2935497)
 * Status: resolved