How do I whitelist Watchful IP addresses and user agent?
If you are are experiencing connection or validation issues on numerous sites, particularly on the same server, the Watchful IP Address may be blocked/blacklisted by any of the following:
- your DNS firewall
- your server firewall
- a software firewall on your website
Below, we will walk you through whitelisting the following IP Addresses and the Watchful User-Agent:
- User-Agent
- WebsiteOps (websiteops.io)
- IP Address
If you are a developer you can view the Watchful IP Addresses using the link below. This is useful for automating whitelisting on your server firewall or other tools requiring whitelisting:
Whitelisting the User-Agent
The User-Agent that Watchful uses to monitor website uptime is WebsiteOps (websiteops.io)
.
Contact your hosting provider or IT department to whitelist the User-Agent.
Whitelisting IP Addresses in your DNS firewall
Domain name server (DNS) service providers often manages their own firewall. Follow the instruction below to whitelist Watchful's IPs at Cloudflare and Sucuri.
A similar procedure may be used at other DNS providers.
Cloudflare Firewall
- Login to your account and navigate to your domain.
- Click on the
Firewall
button at the top, then theTools
tab. - Enter first IP address (above) into the field as shown below.
- Ensure the
Whitelist
option is selected. - Select the
All websites in account
option if all your websites will be added to Watchful. - Enter
Watchful
in the notes area. - Cllick the
Add
button. - Repeat for the other two IP addresses (above).
Sucuri Firewall - Adding IP's
- Login to your account and navigate to your domain.
- Click on the
Access Control
link at the top. - Ensure that
Whitelist IP Addresses
is selected at the left. - Add the first IP addresses (above) to the
Add new IP
field as shown below. - Ensure the
Permanently
option is selected. - Click the
Whitelist
button. - Repeat for the other two IP addresses (above).
Whitelisting IP Addresses in your server firewall
For many site owners, the easiest way to add IP addresses to your server firewall is to contact your hosting provider, provide the IPs (above), and ask them to whitelist. But if you have root or WHM access to your server, you can do this yourself.
How to whitelist IP address in Linux via the CLI
- Login to your linux server using
root
orsudo user
. - Go to the path
/etc/csf/
. - Inside the CSF directory, edit the file called
csf.allow
. - Add the three IP addresses (above) and save the file.
- Use the
csf -r
command to restart the firewall.
How to whitelist IP address in Linux via WHM
Many website owners are using WHM/cPanel to manage their hosting account. If you have WHM access:
- Login into WHM with the root account.
- In the search bar at the top-left, enter
firewall
. - Select
ConfigServer Security & Firewall
from thePlugins
area on the left. - Scroll down until the
csf - Quick Actions
area is visible. - Add the first IP addresses (above) to the
Allow IP address
field as shown below. - Click the
Quick Allow
button. - Repeat for the other two IP addresses (above).
- If prompted, click the
Restart csf+lfd
button.
Whitelisting IP Addresses in your WordPress firewall
WordFence
The Whitelisting options in Wordfence can be found in the WordPress backend under WordFence > All Options > Firewall Options > Advanced
. Simply enter Watchful's IP Address (above) and click the Firewall Options
Save changes
button at the top-right.
Whitelisting IP Addresses in your Joomla firewall
Akeeba Admin Tools Pro
The Whitelisting options can be found in Components > Admin Tools > Web Application Firewall > Configure Exceptions from Blocking
tab. Add the three IP addresses (above) — separated by commas — and click the Save & Close
button.
RS Firewall
The Whitelisting options can be found in Components > RSFirewall > Blacklist/Whitelist
.
OSE Anti-Hacker
The Whitelisting options can be found in Components > OSE Anti-Hacker > IP Management
.
SecurityCheck
The Whitelisting options can be found in Components > Securitycheck > Main menu > Web Firewall Configuration > Lists. Add the three IP addresses (above) —one per line — and click the Save & Close button.
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