Stop chasing malicious traffic one single IP address at a time. We just released a small but important new feature for Servebolt Shield that we know some of you will be incredibly excited about.
You can now block entire IP ranges, rather than just individual IP addresses, within our IP Blocking feature.
This highly requested capability completely changes how you manage site security. Instead of playing digital whack-a-mole with rotating bots, you can now neutralize entire problematic networks in a single move. It is a direct injection of efficiency built to save your team time and immediately lock down your infrastructure.
Here is why managing IP ranges changes the game for your site’s defense and daily operations.
Why Managing IP Ranges Changes the Game
Security threats do not always come from a single source. Sophisticated attackers, botnets, and malicious scrapers frequently utilize massive networks of shifting IP addresses. Blocking these malicious actors one by one is a tedious, reactive game of digital whack-a-mole.
By adding IP range support, Servebolt Shield transforms your defense from reactive to proactive. This new capability delivers measurable outcomes and efficiency for your business in several key areas.
Maximum Time Savings and Simplified Management
For busy developers and site administrators, time is the most valuable resource. Manually inputting hundreds or thousands of individual IP addresses to a blocklist is unscalable. With IP range blocking, you can now enter a single network block notation to secure your application instantly.
Our IP validator requires standard network addresses, meaning you will use proper CIDR notation with the host bits set to zero. This keeps your security configuration clean, organized, and running efficiently without accidental configuration errors, freeing up your team to focus on growth rather than server maintenance.
Neutralizing Entire Malicious Networks
Bad actors often buy or rent whole blocks of IP addresses from specific hosting providers or rogue data centers to launch distributed attacks. When you spot repeated malicious activity originating from the same neighborhood of IP addresses, you can now block the whole range. This preemptively cuts off future traffic from that specific infrastructure, even as the attackers rotate through different individual IPs within that block.
Blocking Repeated Abuse From Known Network Ranges
Some abusive traffic does not come from one fixed IP address. Bots, scrapers, and attackers may rotate through multiple addresses within the same hosting network, proxy provider, or infrastructure block. In these cases, blocking individual IPs can quickly become repetitive and inefficient.
With IP range blocking, you can act on a pattern once you have identified that unwanted traffic is coming from a specific network range. Instead of adding each IP address separately, you can block the relevant CIDR range and reduce repeat abuse from that infrastructure.
This is especially useful when investigating recurring traffic from known problematic providers, data centers, proxy networks, or other sources that have no legitimate reason to access your site. It gives your team more control over network-level access without turning IP Blocking into a long list of individual addresses.
Keep in mind that IP range blocking is not the same as geographic blocking. While IP ranges may sometimes be associated with certain regions or providers, this feature is designed for blocking specific network ranges, not for automatically blocking visitors by country or location.
Get Started with Upgraded IP Blocking Today
For current IP Blocking users, this improvement is already live and ready to use in your Admin Panel. You can start consolidating your existing blocklists and safeguarding your infrastructure with far fewer clicks.
If you are new to Servebolt, our Servebolt Shield suite offers comprehensive, high-performance protection tailored specifically to keep your applications fast and safe. Secure your site, save your team hours of manual work, and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with advanced, scalable security.
