When our checker is blocked

• The site's status is Checker blocked, in grey. A blocked page doesn't count as down.
• On the Sites list, the site says "Our checker is blocked. Visitors are probably fine", with a How to fix link to this page.
• The site's overview shows the same message with the HTTP status we got, the tool that stopped us when we recognise it, and the steps for that tool.
• When you add a site that blocks us, the Website row of the lookup says what stopped us.

We check a block once more before a page counts as blocked. When another page of the site is offline, the site shows Offline: that's the more urgent news.

We recognise the block pages of the Cloudflare firewall, Wordfence, Imunify360 and Sucuri, and the SiteGround captcha. For Cloudflare that includes its challenge page and its access denied pages, such as error 1020 for a firewall rule and 1015 for rate limiting. A refusal (HTTP 401 or 403) that mentions a captcha, bots or a firewall, or an answer that says we sent too many requests (HTTP 429), is a block by a tool we don't name.

A plain refusal without those words isn't a block: it turns visitors away too, so the page is down. The same goes for Cloudflare's own error pages, like 522 or 1016, which show when the server behind Cloudflare is down or can't be found.

Allow our IP addresses in the tool that blocks us. A rule on our user agent (WPMooBot) works too, but anyone can send a user agent, while our addresses can't be faked. A tool or developer that checks hostnames can verify that a request is ours by reverse DNS; Our checker explains how.

Our checker lists our current IP addresses and user agent, with steps for Wordfence, Imunify360, fail2ban and Cloudflare. In WP Moo, Copy our IPs on the site's overview takes you to the same list in Account settings. Can't do it yourself? Forward to my developer opens an email with the steps.

Is the site closed to the public, like a staging site? A password prompt turns visitors away too, so the page shows Offline rather than Checker blocked. A firewall that only lets some addresses in can show Checker blocked. Either way, allow our IP addresses or pause the site in its settings.

When you're done, press Check again on the site's overview. All the site's checks run straight away (once every five minutes at most), and the status changes back as soon as a check gets through.