At UpTime, we utilise the latest security technology to ensure your website and information are safe and functioning correctly.
One of these security measures is the ability of our Firewall to recognise and block devices that appear to be attempting to access your website, emails, or hosting account forcibly. This can sometimes occur when a person or device attempts to access your website by guessing your password.
To protect your hosting account from forcible breaches like this, firewalls use security measures that block computers suspected of malicious activity by “blacklisting” them on the firewall, preventing them from loading anything on the server for a few hours. This includes seeing the website, using FTP or accessing Emails. The server identifies a computer through its IP address.
Every computer has an IP address that identifies it, which is used when you browse the internet. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider – e.g. Telstra, TPG, etc.) automatically assigns you an IP when you connect to the internet. Low-cost Internet plans assign you a random IP address, which changes regularly (sometimes daily, weekly, or monthly). Most Internet plans these days assign accounts a Static/Dedicated IP address that doesn’t change. Sometimes an ISP will offer to add a dedicated IP address for an additional price.
You may think the server is offline if you have lost access to your website, emails, and your control panel is inaccessible. However, the security system on the server may have blocked your IP address.
Some examples of regular usage that may accidentally trigger the firewall to block you
If a hosting account or email password is entered incorrectly too many times, or if too many connections are made simultaneously from a particular computer, the server blocks that computer (blacklists it on the firewall) from accessing anything on the server for a period of a few hours.
Trying to guess a password will most certainly result in you being blocked. If you need to reset a password for anything, you should use your control panel or client area to do so. You can also open a support ticket asking us to reset a password for you.
It is also common for an email program (e.g., Outlook or any mail app on your phone) to have several email accounts set up that it tries to download mail for. Sometimes, multiple accounts can be set up, and one of them may still have an old or incorrect password. This will get your IP address blacklisted for a few hours on the server. Sometimes all passwords are correct, but the mail app is trying to check mail too frequently (every minute or so), and this will also trigger the firewall to block the IP. If you have multiple email accounts on the same server and a single device checks them frequently, this can also trigger the firewall.
Another example is running software to scan your website; this can cause too many connections to your site, which the firewall will also block.
How do I know if my IP is blocked?
If your IP address is blocked, your website and all related services, including Email, FTP, or control panel access (cPanel, Plesk), will not load for you. Your website will appear offline, even though others can access it without issues.
To determine if your website is down due to an IP block or another issue, try accessing your website from a different device on a different network. For example, on your mobile with Wi-Fi turned off.
You can also use a free service like downforeveryoneorjustme.com.
Enter your website address and click the Search button:
If it comes up green, then it's only you who has been blocked.
If it's red, then there is a problem. It could be a problem on our network or a misconfiguration with your DNS settings.
To rule out any issues at our end, you can check our entire hosting platform on our Network Status page.
Any issues are automatically recorded, and you can be assured we are actively resolving them as quickly as possible.
If your website is down for just you, your IP address may be blacklisted.
How to unblock my IP Address
Temporary blocks are usually cleared an hour or two after the last failed attempt.
If you require urgent de-listing, we can unblock your IP address for you.
However, if you don't resolve the cause first, you will just become blocked again.
For example, you should check that all of your email clients are using the correct email address and password.
We will verify with you that you have resolved the issue or if you accidentally caused your IP to be blocked.
If we need to unblock your IP address repeatedly, there will be a service charge.
The first step in asking for your IP to be unblocked is to determine what your IP address is.
You can obtain your IP Address by visiting the following website in your web browser www.whatismyip.com
We will need your IPv4 address. If you also have an IPv6, please note that also.
Then open a support ticket and provide your IP address so we can unblock it.
Recommended reading
All UpTime clients can add free website monitoring to their account. This is a great way to know if your website is online at all times.
To order your free service, please follow this guide:
Free Website Monitoring
For an overview on how to interpret and use our network status tool, please read this guide:
How To Use Our Network Status Tool
