logo
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

Month: August 2019

Blacklist IP Addresses

How to Automatically Blacklist IP Addresses in WordPress

Posted on August 17, 2019 by rosseankofoot

WordPress isn’t the most insecure CMS there is although many people claim it to be so. It is the popularity and the wide use of the CMS that attracts most attention from hackers. The number of brute force attacks WordPress users are subjected to have been on the rise in recent years. We often see websites with more than 10,000 login attempts in just one weekend. Therefore, the need to automatically blacklist IP Addresses in WordPress is obvious.

Because we have to be very vigilant when WordPress security is concerned and for the reason that we are after an automatic blacklisting of IP addresses, we need to consider a plugin adding such functionality.

Although my favourite plugin for WP security is the AIO WP Security & Firewall Plugin and it allows for blacklisting of IP addresses, it doesn’t do this automatically yet. The good news is that there is another, much lighter plugin that does just that. It is the IP Blacklist Cloud plugin and it is available for free download from the WordPress repository at WordPress.org.

Blocking IP addresses automatically in WordPress is necessary because it saves you a lot of unnecessary work of doing it manually and be constantly on the alert for brute force attacks. It is sometimes very hard to block even one intruder as hackers are smart and often use proxy servers with different IP addresses

to try to gain access to your site by hammering it with a combination of usernames and passwords.

Because you may be getting hundreds of failed unauthorized access attempts per site per day, you want to be blocking IP addresses automatically. Blacklisting a lot of IP addresses across a lot of websites each day is a hard and unpleasant task. My way of doing this is by using the IP Blacklist Cloud plugin. It allows you to block certain intruders by IP, instead of blocking a particular user when the failed login attempts exceed a certain number.

Another handy feature of the plugin is the ability to see a number of details for all those who have attempted a brute force attack against your website. If you have questions on how to block IP addresses with this useful tool, just visit the aforementioned plugin page, read its description, go through its documentation and when in doubt, open a support question.

Be careful not to blacklist yourself. Sometimes you also make the mistake of typing the wrong password. It is usually a good idea to whitelist your username. The plugin allows it.

Although there are a lot of WordPress security plugins and IP Blacklist Cloud is neither the plugin that offers the most options and the most comprehensive security nor it is the best WP security-related plugin there is, it is my plugin of choice when automatic blacklisting of IP addresses is concerned.

As it is with all of your websites, you want to prevent hackers from accessing your admin panel and making your life miserable. Be cautious of brute force attacks and if you can’t find a better plugin that does the task of blocking IP addresses in WordPress, give this one a try. It is free, easy to use, and only takes a few moments of your time to set up properly.…

Read more
Web Design Trends to Expect

Web Design Trends to Expect

Posted on August 9, 2019May 27, 2020 by rosseankofoot

With each passing year web design is growing at an ever faster rate and with each passing day there are more and more awesome things happening. It would not be difficult to guess that new and exciting developments are just around the corner in 2015.

Although we have already seen a lot of trends in 2014, and these are likely to continue in 2015 too, it is time to outline the most likely trends to emerge in 2015.

While many people have their thoughts still focused on the year 2014, some are eager to learn what web design trends are likely to dominate in the year 2015.

Lengthier designs

iphone

The majority of new website designs are lengthier today when scrolling down the page than they used to be in past years. As the popularity of mobile devices increases, the need for scrolling, instead of linking, as a way to present content on a page, becomes more evident. This is especially true for homepages.

Users find it easier to scroll down a page instead of clinking to find additional information.

The long scrolling trend is evident not only on homepages though. While sites with long scrolling designs have already won popularity, scrolling has a lot of benefits and is not limited to homepages. Product and about pages also use it as a way to display a range of content in an elegant way.

The iPhone 6 page of Apple, for example, demonstrated the trend towards long scrolling pages outside of its homepage. The main iPhone 6 page has been designed as a long scrolling layout and showcases all of the features and specifications of a product.

Additionally, the site employs a slick animation effect to ensure a visually enhanced scrolling experience.

Interaction and storytelling

Although producing great content is very important for your website, it is a big plus to be able to tell a story. In the year 2015, web design will most likely emphasize on storytelling.

Take for example the website of Space Needle. It nicely conveys the facts around the Space Needle through storytelling and the custom-made design supporting it. What is more is that it is perfectly in line with the aforementioned trend for long scrolling.

SpaceNeedle

The website Space Needle is also an example of another 2015 trend – interaction. The designs of websites are becoming animated and more interactive, with the aim to present particular content in a more appealing and unique way.

The removal of large background images from the header

The past few years have seen the use of large images as header backgrounds with text on top. This was the first element of a website presented to visitors. It quickly became clear that in order to stand out from the crowd you had to do the opposite.
Some websites have decided to do just that with their designs and preserve the large headers but remove background images. However, not following this trend wasn’t the only option for such a consideration. The owners of such sites also tried to optimize speed and performance.
The site of The New Wave Company is a clear indication for this. Its large header and page-centered typography welcome its visitors. What the design seems to “lack” is a large image in the background behind the heading.

TheNewWaveCompany

All this is done with a taste and doesn’t follow the design of other websites that use large images for header backgrounds.

Simplicity and removal of unessential design elements

One of the pillars of web design is that a design is only complete when all unnecessary and unessential elements have been disposed of. As websites are looking for a way to simplify their designs, I trust we will be observing more websites following this trend by abandoning non-essential design elements.
The aforementioned website of The New Wave Company did exactly that by deciding not to have a huge header background image.

Centered, fixed-width

…
Read more

Recent Posts

  • Role of UI and UX in Designing a WordPress Website
  • WordPress Database Cleanup for Increased Website Performance
  • Several reasons to consider using WordPress for business
  • Create a WordPress Theme from Scratch with Underscores
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of WordPress Frameworks

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • May 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • August 2019
    • June 2019

    Categories

    • Wordpress
    • WordPress Theme Design
    • WordPress Themes

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
    ©2022 My Own Designs | WordPress Theme by Superbthemes.com