Bot Storm Radar - Support
Help and FAQs for Bot Storm Radar, the plugin that sees bot swarms as swarms, tells you in plain words when a bot storm is running, and refuses scanner probes before WordPress loads. Browse the FAQ below or use the contact form.
Frequently Asked Questions
Installation
How do I install Bot Storm Radar?
Download the zip of the latest release, then in your WordPress admin go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, upload it and activate it. The plugin appears as Bot Storm Radar in the admin menu.What should I do after activating it?
Leave it running for a week, so it can learn what normal traffic looks like on your site. Then review the thresholds on the Settings tab, and look at the Bans tab before you switch address bans from observe to enforce.Storms and alerts
What do calm, warning, storm and cooling mean?
Every minute the plugin turns its swarm metrics into a storm score from 0 to 100. With the default settings a score of 40 means warning and 60 means storm, and nothing scores at all below 30 distinct addresses in a minute. After a storm, cooling holds for a while before the state goes back to calm. Every change is listed in the storm timeline with an explanation in words.Who gets the alert emails?
The site’s administration email address, until you change it on the Settings tab under Alert email recipients. You choose there whether warning, storm and all-clear each send a mail.Bans and probes
What is a probe?
A request for a file only scanners ask for, such as.env, .git, backups, database dumps, other applications’ admin pages and .php files that do not exist. The plugin answers them with 403 before WordPress loads, for every visitor. The full list, a switch and your own exceptions are on the Settings tab under Probes.What is observe mode?
Address bans start in observe mode. An address that would have been banned is listed on the Bans tab with the requests that caused it, and nobody is refused. When the list looks right, switch to enforce on the Settings tab.Can it lock me or a search engine out?
Administrators, verified search bots, Cloudflare and declared proxies, and the addresses on your never-ban list are never banned. An address that claims to be a search bot is verified by DNS first. A ban can be lifted at any time with the Unban button.How do I switch the gate off without wp-admin?
Create an empty file nameddisabled in the data directory, wp-content/uploads/bot-storm-radar-<random>/, by SFTP or in your host’s file manager. The gate stops on the next request. Delete the file to switch it back on.Compatibility
Does it work behind Cloudflare or another proxy?
Yes. Cloudflare is recognized by its published address ranges. Another proxy has to be declared on the Settings tab, and the plugin tells you when it sees one that is not declared.Does it need an object cache?
No, but a persistent object cache (Redis, Memcached) or APCu is strongly recommended. Without one the counters fall back to the database, and the Radar tab warns about it.What is early protection?
By default the gate runs from a must-use plugin, after WordPress has connected to the database. Early protection makes it run before WordPress, so a refused request costs no database connection. Leave it off if your host or a security scanner deletes PHP files from the uploads folder.My server runs nginx. Is there anything to add?
Yes, one rule inside the site’sserver block, so the plugin’s data directory is never served: location ^~ /wp-content/uploads/bot-storm-radar- { deny all; }Updates & uninstall
How do I update the plugin?
New versions appear in Dashboard → Updates like any other plugin.What happens on uninstall?
The plugin removes its must-use loader, its ban tables, its gate files and its state file. The data directory keeps a few-line loader and adisabled marker, which do nothing and can be deleted by hand.Contact Support
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Send us a message and we’ll get back to you within 1–2 business days.Bug Reports & Feature Requests
For bug reports and feature requests, please use the GitHub issue tracker. Please include your plugin version and the steps to reproduce so we can investigate efficiently.