Hi @greggwatson,
Thank you so much for the kind words! We are thrilled to hear that Advanced IP Blocker is your favorite security plugin and your go-to choice for client installations.
Regarding ClassicPress: Structurally, our plugin is actually highly compatible with the ClassicPress philosophy. We do not rely on React, Gutenberg blocks, or Full Site Editing (FSE). Our WAF and admin panels are built efficiently with pure PHP, jQuery, and vanilla JS.
If the plugin is failing to install or activate on your clients’ ClassicPress sites, it is almost certainly due to two strict server requirements we currently enforce in our core files:
- PHP 8.1+ Requirement: Advanced IP Blocker strictly requires PHP 8.1 or higher (primarily for our 2FA cryptographic libraries). Since the ClassicPress community is often conservative with server environments to ensure stability, many sites still run on PHP 7.4. If the server is on PHP 7.4, the plugin will refuse to activate.
- Core Version Check: Our plugin header specifies
Requires at least: 6.7. Because ClassicPress v2 is based on the WP 6.2 core (and v1 on WP 4.9), the native plugin installer might block the installation thinking the core version is outdated.
How to make it work right now: If you ensure that the ClassicPress server is running PHP 8.1+, you can install the plugin manually (via ZIP upload or FTP) and it should run smoothly without any Gutenberg-related conflicts.
We love the performance and security-focused mindset of the ClassicPress community. We will definitely look into officially testing and supporting ClassicPress in a future update, potentially by adjusting our version headers to prevent installation blocks on CP v2.
Please let me know if ensuring PHP 8.1 resolves the issue for your clients!
Thanks for the prompt response. Actually I changed the plugin header, and it works perfectly. I did a scan on the code and made sure there were no dependencies or other points of failure. The client is super happy with it, they are running php 8.4 and LiteSpeed and it works perfectly. Sorry I haven’t written a review yet, been very busy but I have over 100 installs of this plugin and I have tested it across many diverse WP and server/php environments and the performance, daily or weekly updates you push are fantastic.
Thanks for the feedback and keep up the most excellent work!
Gregg
Hi Gregg,
That is fantastic news! Thank you so much for taking the time to audit the code and test it so thoroughly on PHP 8.4 and LiteSpeed. Knowing that you trust Advanced IP Blocker across more than 100 client installations means the world to us.
Since you’ve confirmed it runs flawlessly by just adjusting the header, we will definitely evaluate lowering the “Requires at least” header in an upcoming update so you won’t have to patch it manually for your ClassicPress clients in the future.
We know how busy agency work gets, but whenever you do find a spare moment, a review would be incredibly appreciated—it helps us keep the project growing.
Thanks again for your trust and for being such an awesome part of our community!
Hi Gregg,
Just to add a final official note here for any other ClassicPress users who might stumble upon this thread in the future:
We are thrilled to officially confirm that Advanced IP Blocker is fully compatible with ClassicPress v2 (and higher).
Because our plugin’s architecture was built from the ground up focusing on extreme performance and security, we do not rely on React, Gutenberg blocks, or Full Site Editing (FSE). Our WAF and admin dashboards use clean, vanilla JavaScript and standard PHP, which perfectly aligns with the ClassicPress philosophy of keeping things lightweight and bloat-free.
However, for anyone installing this on ClassicPress, please keep these two strict requirements in mind:
- ClassicPress v2+ Only: Our codebase utilizes native polyfills and functions introduced in later core versions (specifically 5.9+). Since ClassicPress v2 is based on the WP 6.2 core, it handles these flawlessly. ClassicPress v1 (based on WP 4.9) is not supported.
- PHP 8.1+ is Strictly Required: We utilize modern, highly secure cryptographic libraries (especially for our Two-Factor Authentication module) that strictly require PHP 8.1 or higher. If your server is running PHP 7.4 (which is still somewhat common in the CP community), the plugin will refuse to activate.
Good news: Starting from version 8.10.14, we have officially adjusted our core version headers (Requires at least: 5.9) so that the ClassicPress v2 native installer will no longer block the installation out of the box. You won’t have to manually edit the plugin headers anymore!
Thanks again for testing it across your 100+ LiteSpeed installations and for trusting us to secure your clients.
Best regards, The Advanced IP Blocker Team
