WF Support will chime in with more detail, but in the meantime, that would be something you would have to initiate at the web server level, not at the website level…
tfc, I’ve unfortunately got years of experience with exactly what you’re asking. As forum contributor Caleb says, you can move “left” in your stack and do things like placing IP blocks in your server configuration files. Doing so creates a bit less load than letting Wordfence do it, but it doesn’t “hide” your website. The IPs still hit you, only they get a more immediate block. I do still add IP blocks to my server configuration, only I try to limit it to very active IP ranges, and limit my time spend to just an hour a week or so.
By the way, 50,000 blocked IP attempts in a week, around 7,000 a day, that’s not excessive.
To put it in perspective, if possible, check your server firewall, you might be amazed at how many attacks are being made on your server configuration login and your FTP login. All happening behind the scene, and using bandwidth you pay for and your ISP is happy to make a profit from (which is probably why most ISPs don’t do more to fight the bot swarm).
In the end, the lesson I learned from those with 3 times larger brains than I, is always try to do this stuff programmatically (Wordfence) rather than taking time playing whack-a-mole.
MTN
Thank you MTN for a great reply. I think I feel better about feeling worse! Thank you Wordfence!!!
