Your WordPress Website Needs a Firewall

Thank you for being a Webstix hosting client. We need you to make a decision, so please read.

Our goal has been to make our hosting more like a gated community where we know everyone and we keep an eye on what’s going on. We already require all sites to be updated with their site software. This has worked out well, but these hackers keep getting smarter.

Due to some hacks we’ve been seeing, we’re now setting a rule for all WordPress sites we host need to have a firewall installed on them. This will make your website safer and it will help protect the servers. Plus, don’t you want to be on a host that requires increased security?

The Wordfence firewall works very well. We’ve been using it a while, and we include it with all new projects.

Some of the notable benefits are:

• Brute force login protection
• Country blocking
• Block the latest exploits and malware
• Wordfence maintains the largest WordPress-specific malware database in the world
• They immediately release new firewall rules that protect against any vulnerabilities, which are deployed in real-time to all paid customers
• Block malicious IP addresses in real-time
• Scans and immensely good help finding hacks/compromises on your website

The free version is good, but we’re going to require Wordfence Premium going forward now.

Country Blocking

With country blocking, it provides one more hurdle for hackers to get over. Hackers are pretty lazy. They go for sites that are easier to break into (out of date software, etc.). Blocking access on a per-country basis makes it so that people in those countries can’t even see your website.

If you do business around the world, the country blocking feature might not help (other features will), but most of our clients just do business in the United States. The idea here is to block all countries, then just open up the countries that you need to access your website – versus just picking a few to block.

During the installation and setup of Wordfence, we’ll ask you which countries you need open.

Here’s the Dealio…

Webstix will install, set up, and configure Wordfence for you. We’ll also manage your license to make sure you stay protected. The install and setup is $220, and then after the first year, it’s just $120/year.

We can either bill you now, or we can add it to your hosting bill, pro-rated. It’s up to you.

Note: If you do not want Wordfence, we’ll still host your website, but we’ll have to move it off our main server to our other server.

Please enter your choice and your information here, then we’ll get started. Again, this is a rule we’re putting into place on our server for better protection, so it is required. Trust us, you want to be in a hosting environment where all sites have this kind of protection in place.