{"id":29933,"date":"2022-09-02T03:33:12","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T03:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/knowledgebase\/how-to-block-a-countrys-ip-range\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T23:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T23:45:06","slug":"how-to-block-a-countrys-ip-range","status":"publish","type":"knowledgebase","link":"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/nz\/knowledgebase\/how-to-block-a-countrys-ip-range\/","title":{"rendered":"How to block a country in the firewall"},"content":{"rendered":"

For security, compliance, or operational reasons, you may wish to block visitors from certain countries from accessing your WordPress site. With Staq Firewall, blocking access by country is quick and easy using geo IP rules.<\/p>\n

Step-by-Step: Blocking Countries via Staq Firewall<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Log in to the WordPress site hosted on Staq.<\/li>\n
  2. In the left menu, click Staq Hosting<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  3. Click Firewall<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  4. Click the Ban Rules<\/strong> tab.<\/li>\n
  5. Click Create New Rule<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Create<\/p>\n

    Select Country Blocking Rule Type<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Under Rule Type<\/strong>, select Country Blocking<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    2. Choose the countries you want to block.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"Country<\/p>\n

      Choose a Blocking Condition<\/h3>\n

      If you want to block the countries you selected, choose:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Ban IP addresses from the selected countries (inclusion)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        \"Inclusion<\/p>\n

        If instead you want to block all countries except a few selected ones, e.g., only allow traffic from Australia, then select Australia from the Countries list and then choose the condition as:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Ban IP addresses from the unselected countries (exclusion)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          \"\"<\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

          Exemption Check<\/h3>\n

          Enabling this setting allows safe, verified bots (like Googlebot, Bing, Meta, OpenAI, etc.) to bypass your country block \u2014 even if their IP address comes from a restricted country:<\/p>\n

          \"Exemption<\/p>\n

          Script Blocking Mode<\/h3>\n

          If set to Yes<\/strong>, banned users will be silently blocked at the Nginx level without seeing an error or CAPTCHA. This reduces server load, but may lead to false positives.<\/p>\n

          If set to No<\/strong>, blocked users will see a reCAPTCHA page and can request access by verifying themselves \u2014 a safer option if you’re unsure.<\/p>\n

          \"Script<\/p>\n

          Final Step<\/h2>\n

          Once you’re done configuring the rule, click Save Rule<\/strong> to activate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29657,"parent":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-29933","knowledgebase","type-knowledgebase","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-security-firewall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to block a country in the firewall - Managed Hosting Platform for WordPress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wpstaq.com\/knowledgebase\/how-to-block-a-countrys-ip-range\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to block a country in the firewall - Managed Hosting Platform for WordPress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For security, compliance, or operational reasons, you may wish to block visitors from certain countries from accessing your WordPress site. 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