Manually Blocking an IP

Sometimes you want to block an IP yourself, before the auto-ban engine gets there. This is useful for responding to scraping, abuse, harassment, or threats spotted in the activity log.

Step-by-Step

1. Open Architect Panel → Blocked IP Addresses and click Block an IP.
2. Enter the IP. Single addresses or CIDR ranges (e.g. 198.51.100.0/24 blocks the whole /24) are accepted.
3. Add a reason note. This is invaluable later when reviewing or auditing.
4. Pick a duration: 1 hour, 24 hours, 1 week, 30 days, or permanent.
5. Optionally add tags for grouping (e.g. #scraping, #harassment).
6. Save.

Effects

Once blocked, any request from the IP receives a 403 response before reaching the application. Login, API and even static asset requests are all rejected. The block applies platform-wide regardless of which tenant the request was for.

Worked Examples

• Aggressive scraper: Logs show 10,000 requests/hour from a single IP. Block /32 permanently with reason “high-volume scraping, no UA”.
• Country-wide block: Repeated abuse from a hosting provider. Block their entire /16 for 30 days with tag #hosting-provider-x.
• Compromised office IP: A user's home IP is reportedly compromised. Block temporarily for 24h while they investigate.

Warning: Be careful with CIDR ranges — a typo of /8 instead of /24 blocks 16 million addresses including potentially your own office. The form warns when ranges exceed /16.