Do you have trouble logging in or connecting to your mailbox/wp-admin?
Too many login attempts would eventually lead to blocking yourself as our system considers that as a brute-force attack. It’s a great security measure to avoid bots/hackers trying to access your accounts.
We understand that this whole thing might be frustrating, but we implement that protection for your website’s security. The best practice would be to give it some time and reset your password to try logging in again. If you still have difficulties logging in, contact the WPX support team for further assistance.
Removing the block after you’ve already blocked yourself is not possible. However, in some cases, we can prevent future blocks after the initial one by whitelisting your IP address.
The error/response code that you’ll see on your websites hosted with us and WPX’s site is 403 Forbidden.
This article will explain how our Brute-Force Protection works, so you know how long your IP address will be blocked based on the failed attempts you made to log in.
wp-admin / wp-login.php
Our system won’t block you after two failed back-end area log-in attempts. Failing the Captcha protection is what will have you blocked.
If you fail the Captcha 5 times in the time frame of one minute, you won’t be able to access any of your sites or connect via FTP / Mail for the next 10 minutes. That would increase if you keep trying to solve the Captcha after the initial 10 minutes. The restriction will last for 1 hour.
The 1-hour restriction will be reset back to 10 minutes if you keep trying to solve the Captcha. That’s a great opportunity to follow the suggestion from above and try resetting your password or contacting us.
The block is IP address-based meaning that you will still be able to access your sites through different networks such as a mobile one or another internet service provider.
Your websites won’t be down during the time your IP address is blocked. They will be accessible to everyone else besides the blocked IP address.
Preventing future blocks after the initial one is possible if you provide us with your IP address.
While being blocked, accessing your sites, FTP/SFTP, Webmail, and mail client connection wouldn’t be possible.
Webmail / Mail Client
Blocking yourself may occur by attempting to log in too many times in our Webmail (e.g. https://s17.wpxhosting.com) or attempting to establish a mail client connection (e.g. Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Gmail, etc.).
After 5 failed log-in/connection attempts, you’ll be blocked for 10 minutes. The block will remain 10 minutes after another 5 failed attempts, it won’t accumulate.
If you are trying to log in to our Webmail and it doesn’t seem to be working, please make sure to reset your password or contact us so we can assist further.
However, if you have a hard time connecting to a mail client – make sure to use the proper server and port details. In case you’re unsure where to find these, feel free to contact us or browse our Mail section for the specific mail client that you use.
We won’t be able to prevent any future blocks. Please make fewer log-in attempts if your details don’t seem to be working as expected.
Establishing FTP/SFTP will still be possible. Your sites will also be accessible.
FTP / SFTP
Here, again, the block will be IP-based which makes the connection through different internet providers possible. Please make sure you’re entering the correct FTP/SFTP server, port, username, and password. The most used FTP/SFTP client is FileZilla and you can check our article about it.
You have 5 login attempts before getting blocked. The restriction lasts for 10 minutes and it does not accumulate.
Removing the block, preventing future blocks, or increasing the number of tries will not be possible.
As mentioned above it’s an IP level block and accessing your websites (they will be with HTTP status Forbidden / Not Available), making FTP/SFTP, or mail connections not available options.
If you have any other questions on the topic, don’t hesitate to contact the WPX Support Team via live chat (use the bottom right-hand widget) and they will respond and help within 30 seconds or less.