Why am I seeing a firewall block message when attempting to view my website?

If you’re browsing to your website and you’re seeing a message stating “Your connection to this server has been blocked by the firewall”, then for whatever reason your IP address has been limited from accessing the server. This is by design to protect your website and data from malicious activity. You can unblock yourself through VIPcontrol without needing assistance from our team.

Why might a block occur?

• Excessive invalid FTP login attempts.
• Excessive invalid cPanel login attempts.
• Excessive invalid WHM login attempts.
• Excessive invalid POP3 login attempts.
• Excessive invalid IMAP login attempts.
• Excessive invalid SMTP login attempts.
• mod_security when you are attempting to view a page via an invalid URL or there is an odd string being parsed.
• Excessive invalid htaccess login prompt attempts.
• Portscanning

In each case of “Excessive” invalid login attempts, this is typically measured through x number of failed attempts over x number of minutes (such as 15 failed attempts in 5 minutes).

How can I manually clear the block?

If you have a cPanel Shared Hosting Service, the steps are as follows.

1. Login to your VIPcontrol account.
2. Click the My Services option on the top of the page
3. Click on cPanel Hosting
4. Hit the Manage button for the hosting service that you wish to access
5. Select Check Firewall from under Security on the left-hand side
6. This will then automatically check your current IP address against the server, or you may enter another person IP address to check theirs.
7. If a block is found, it will state the reason and allow you to unblock it.

If you have a Fully Managed VPS Service, these are the steps you need to follow.

1. Login to your VIPcontrol account.
2. Click the My Services option on the top of the page
3. Click on VPS
4. Click on the WHM button next to the Fully Managed VPS Service
5. Once inside WHM, navigate to ConfigServer Security & Firewall in the menu options to the left.
6. You can check for and remove IP Address blocks via this interface.

Please note, if you have a NetVirtue hosting service you will not be able to clear this yourself, please submit an eTicket to our Technical Support Team.

It’s important you resolve the issue which caused the block, using the block reason in VIPcontrol as your investigation starting point. If you require further data such as a port number, you may contact our Technical Support team.