BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security vs VPN Guard – Block VPN, Proxy, Bots & Anonymous Visitors

🔥 Install, activate, and done! 🔥 Powerful protection from WP’s fastest firewall plugin. BBQ Firewall is a lightweight, blazing-fast firewall plugin that protects your site against a wide range of threats. BBQ checks all incoming traffic and quietly blocks bad requests containing nasty stuff like eval(, base64_, and excessively long request-strings. This is a simple yet solid solution for sites that are unable to use a strong Apache/.htaccess firewall. 🔥 Adds a strong firewall to ANY WordPress site 🔥 Works with all WordPress plugins and themes Powerful Protection BBQ protects your site against many threats: SQL injection attacks Executable file uploads Directory traversal attacks Unsafe character requests Excessively long requests PHP remote/file execution XSS, XXE, and related attacks Protects against bad bots Protects against bad referrers Protects against bad POST content Protects against many other bad requests 🔥 Works great with Blackhole for Bad Bots and Banhammer Awesome Features BBQ provides all the best firewall features: Rated 5 stars at WordPress.org 100% plug-&-play, zero configuration 100% focused on security and performance Blocks a wide range of malicious URL requests Fastest Web Application Firewall (WAF) for WordPress Based on the 7G/8G Firewall Scans all incoming traffic and blocks bad requests Scans all types of requests: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc. Protects against known bad bots and referrers Works silently behind the scenes to protect your site Hassle-free security plugin that’s easy to use Thoroughly tested, error-free performance Extremely low rate of false positives Compatible with other security plugins Regularly updated and “future proof” Firewall < 10 kilobytes in size Lightweight, fast and flexible 🔥 For advanced protection and features, check out BBQ Pro &raquo; Exclusive Pro Features Customize firewall via plugin settings Easily add or remove firewall patterns Easily add Jeff Starr’s AI Block List Send Email Alerts for blocked requests Quickly enable/disable firewall rules Disable firewall for logged-in users Block excessively long URI requests Protect against XML-RPC exploits Block any individual IP address Block entire ranges of IP addresses Protect against user-ID phishing Redirect all blocked requests Display a custom “blocked” message Set your own response status code Complete inline documentation Statistics for blocked requests Tools to reset options and patterns Import and Export firewall patterns One-click pattern testing Whitelist IP addresses ..plus everything the free version can do and more. 🔥 Learn more and get BBQ Pro &raquo; Privacy This plugin does not collect or store any user data. It does not set any cookies, and it does not connect to any third-party locations. Thus, this plugin does not affect user privacy in any way. BBQ Firewall is developed and maintained by Jeff Starr, 15-year WordPress developer and book author. 🔥 BBQ = Block Bad Queries Support development I develop and maintain this free plugin with love for the WordPress community. To show support, you can make a donation or purchase one of my books: The Tao of WordPress Digging into WordPress .htaccess made easy WordPress Themes In Depth Wizard’s SQL Recipes for WordPress And/or purchase one of my premium WordPress plugins: BBQ Pro – Blazing fast WordPress firewall Blackhole Pro – Automatically block bad bots Banhammer Pro – Monitor traffic and ban the bad guys GA Google Analytics Pro – Connect WordPress to Google Analytics Head Meta Pro – Ultimate Meta Tags for WordPress REST Pro Tools – Awesome tools for managing the WP REST API Simple Ajax Chat Pro – Unlimited chat rooms USP Pro – Unlimited front-end forms Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thank you! 🙂

VPN Guard is the ultimate freemium WordPress plugin to help you block VPNs, proxies, and other anonymizing networks frequently leveraged by unwanted bots and suspicious traffic in real-time — no subscription required. It uses the powerful vpnapi.io engine to scan visitors’ IP addresses and instantly block connections flagged as VPN, Proxy, Tor, or Relay—and your free account includes 1,000 API requests per day! This helps protect your site from various threats that hide behind these anonymization layers. And here’s the game-changer: YOU decide the battlefield! Want to shield your entire site? Done. Need to protect just your login page, WooCommerce checkout, specific posts, or even the entire /wp-admin/ area? VPN Guard gives you pinpoint control with its advanced targeting rules. > 💡 Premium-grade features, no premium price. Unlock serious protection with granular control, without spending a dime. ✅ Features You’ll Love ✨ NEW! Block Page Preview & Test Tab – See exactly what your blocked users see and get tips for testing your setup! 🎯 NEW! LASER-FOCUSED TARGETING! – Why block everything when you can block SMARTER? Full Site Protection: Shield your entire WordPress site with one click. Specific Areas Only: Create custom rules to protect: – Individual Post / Page ID(s) – Entire Post Types (e.g., all “products”, all “articles”, or your custom post types) – URLs based on Contains, Starts With, or Exact Match – Critical WooCommerce Pages (Cart, Checkout, My Account) – Essential WordPress Pages (Login Page, Registration Page) – The entire WordPress Admin Area (/wp-admin/) 🔍 VPN & Proxy Detection – Block anonymized traffic (VPN, Proxy, Tor, Relay) using trusted IP intelligence. Enhanced IP validation logic. 🛡️ Mitigate Unwanted Traffic – Helps reduce access from scrapers and unwanted bots that often operate through the types of anonymizing networks detected by the API. 🔐 WordPress Login Security – Harden your admin and login endpoints (now even more precise with targeting!) 🛒 WooCommerce Checkout Protection – Reduce fraud and suspicious orders by blocking high-risk anonymized connections. 🧠 Smart Role Bypasses – Let trusted roles skip blocking rules. ⏰ Scheduled Blocking – Only apply blocking rules at certain hours or days. Improved scheduler logic. 📋 View Blocked Logs – Review recent blocked IPs, URLs, and detection reasons. User Agent and Referer now included in CSV export. 📤 Export to CSV – One-click export for audit logs or compliance. Log export functionality restored and improved. ✅ IP Whitelist – Allow specific IPs even if flagged by the detection service. – 🛡️ Admin Panel Status Notice – Optional notice in your dashboard, with refined styling and more robust status display. 🧠 Ideal For Bloggers looking to protect login and admin access with precision. WooCommerce stores wanting to secure checkout or specific product categories from risky traffic. Membership sites and online courses needing to protect premium content areas. Publishers battling fake traffic or content scrapers on high-value articles or sections. Any WordPress site that needs smarter, targeted access control against anonymized and potentially malicious traffic. 🚀 Why Choose VPN Guard? While other security or VPN-blocking plugins lock core features or charge extra for flexibility, VPN Guard gives you true freemium access with unparalleled control: ✅ 100% free with generous API usage for detecting VPNs, Proxies, Tor, and Relays. 🎯 Powerful targeting rules at no extra cost! 🔓 Key features without nagging upsells. 📈 Designed for performance, speed, and SEO safety. Enhanced stability and security in the latest update. > 💥 Use it standalone or alongside other security tools like Wordfence, iThemes Security, All In One WP Security, and more! VPN Guard’s targeting complements them perfectly. 🔌 Integrations & Compatibility ✅ Fully compatible with WooCommerce (target cart, checkout, account pages) ✅ Works with popular caching plugins ✅ Integrates with any WordPress theme or builder ✅ Safe for use with CDNs and Cloudflare 📦 API Details VPN Guard uses vpnapi.io — a modern and reliable IP intelligence service. The API response includes flags for: – VPN: Is the IP a VPN? – Proxy: Is the IP a Proxy? – Tor: Is the IP a Tor exit node? – Relay: Is the IP part of a relay network? (The API may also provide a “hosting” flag indicating a datacenter/hosting IP, which contributes to identifying non-residential traffic, though VPN Guard’s primary blocking is based on the above explicit flags). 🆓 Free plan includes 1,000 requests per day 🚀 Easy upgrade options available (no commitment) 🔐 GDPR compliant, fast response times, and global coverage You’ll be prompted to add your free API key inside the plugin settings. 💬 Support Got questions or feature requests? Reach out from the plugin’s built-in feedback form or at https://vpndeals.com/wordpress-plugins/vpn-guard/ External Services This plugin utilizes the vpnapi.io service to perform real-time IP address analysis. This is essential for the plugin’s core functionality of detecting and blocking traffic from VPNs, proxies, Tor networks, and relays. Service Provider: vpnapi.io Purpose: To identify the nature of a visitor’s IP address (VPN, proxy, Tor, relay) to enable blocking or restriction based on your plugin settings, thereby enhancing website security and integrity. Data Sent: When a visitor accesses a page or area of your site that is actively protected by VPN Guard (and the result for their IP is not already cached locally or if the IP is not whitelisted), the visitor’s IP address is sent to the vpnapi.io service for analysis. Service Terms of Use: https://vpnapi.io/terms Service Privacy Policy: https://vpnapi.io/privacy Privacy Considerations VPN Guard is designed with user and site visitor privacy in mind. Here’s how we handle data: Visitor IP Addresses: To protect your site, VPN Guard processes the IP addresses of your site visitors. As detailed in the “External Services” section, visitor IP addresses may be sent to the vpnapi.io service for analysis. Data Logging: If a visitor’s IP address is blocked, VPN Guard will store the following information in your local WordPress database: the visitor’s IP address, the date and time of the block, the detection reason (e.g., “VPN”), the URL the visitor attempted to access, their browser user agent, and the HTTP referer. This data is for your security logging and review purposes. You have an option in the plugin settings to delete all plugin data, including these logs, upon uninstallation. Cookies: VPN Guard’s core IP blocking functionality does not set any cookies on your website visitors’ browsers. Site Administrator Data (Feedback Form): If you choose to send feedback to us via the plugin’s built-in feedback form, it will include your WordPress admin email, site URL, and technical details (plugin version, WP version, PHP version) to help us provide support. This is explicitly stated on the feedback form itself. * Your Website’s Privacy Policy: We recommend that you update your website’s privacy policy to inform your users about the data processing activities performed by VPN Guard, including the use of the vpnapi.io service and the local logging of blocked IP addresses.