The Endless Confusion of Blocked IPs

So, someone (frequently on a dynamic IP, never to be seen again) arrived at your site, misbehaved, and got themselves blocked.

But they have not returned and attempted access again “since” then.
Key words are “since it was blocked” (read: AFTER being blocked).

It does not say that they were never blocked. Merely that they have not been seen and blocked “since then”.

Thanks Caleb, so when the message reads

“No attempts have been made to access the site since this IP was blocked.
0 hits before blocked
0 blocked hits
Will be unblocked in 14 hours 23 mins”

That means the blocked IP actually did make a hit, only not this time, but recently enough previously to still be blocked?

Apologies for my confusion…

MTN

Yes..

Your blocking period on the options page is set way higher than the default of only 10 minutes (since your messages claims 14+ hours to unblock, I assume maybe 24 hours?).
If you set the block for 24 hours, that means that “recent” here means that they, according to the message, got blocked 9 hours 37 minutes ago. Never seen since then.

But had the blocking time been e.g. 10-30 minutes, these IPs would have fallen off the temporary tracking a long time ago. (to be caught again, if they come back to misbehave.)

They are only hanging around in your lists because of the long blocking time.

Aha! Thanks for setting me straight. Yes, I use a lengthy block time, 48 hours actually. Works quite well — other than creating confusion for the site owner (smile).

MTN

?? ??

Hello @mountainguy2,

I will clarify in full detail how it works.

I visited these three pages below that any visitor is granted access to:

my-site.com
my-site.com/test-1
my-site.com/test-2

That is 3 visits.

I then visit a banned URL below:

my-site.com/banned

I am now served the block page stating: “Reason: Accessed a banned URL.”

I then visit the home page again 3 times. I still receive the block page as those three home page visits were made during the block time as set by the option “How long is an IP address blocked when it breaks a rule”

The “Blocking” page shows this information for my blocked IP address:

3 hits before blocked
3 blocked hits
Will be unblocked in 28 mins

The first line confrims that I visited the site 3 times before loading a banned URL and thus being blocked.

The second line confrims that I attempted to load a page 3 times after I was served the original block page for visiting a banned URL.

The third line shows the time left until that block is lifted for the IP address. This time is set byt the option “How long is an IP address blocked when it breaks a rule“.

I hope this completely clears this up for you.

I think I’ve got it, thanks to all you guys here! Appreciate it. Feature suggestion would be “more clarity” in how this is explained in the documentation. Thanks, MTN