From January 4th 2017 onwards, WPX Hosting has implemented new security protocols to secure your websites even further. This security update has been introduced for your benefit and will help keep your site secure in case of attack.
To prevent your websites from being hacked, new Brute Force rules have been added to our security system so we can better protect your WordPress-Admin login area:
Rule #1: If a wrong password is entered more than 5 times in under 1 minute - the IP will be blocked for 1 hour.
Note: Be careful because you can lock yourself out as well if you enter a wrong username / password more than 5 times within 1 minute.
If this does happen, you must wait for 1 hour until your IP is unblocked.
Rule #2: If incorrect FTP credentials are used more than 5 times in under 1 minute - the IP will also be blocked for 1 hour.
Rule #3: If a certain URL (like a specific inner page on your website) is accessed more than 800 times from one IP address in 2 seconds - that IP will be blocked for 1 hour.
Bear in mind that Rule #3 above can be affected by poorly coded plugins.
For example, if you are using an image optimising plugin (not recommended), it can constantly hit certain URLs and that can cause your IP address to be blocked.
That's why it is good practice to optimize your images with certain delays (5 seconds will be enough) before performing bulk actions again (or switch to a CDN for image delivery - ask us how if you’re stuck).
Note: If you have been blocked out of your IP address, you will not have access to any of your other websites hosted with us for 1 hour.
Before our new security update, if incorrect login details were used to access your IP 3 times, your site would be blocked for only 5 minutes. This new security update will ensure that your information is kept completely secure from any potential threats.
If you forget your WordPress Admin login details or your FTP credentials, try to reset your password or just raise a support ticket from here:
https://wpxhosting.com/tickets/new/
and we will help you out right away.