This article contains the steps required to block Fastwebnet.it  from accessing your WordPress site using the Wordfence plugin.  Fastwebnet.it or simply “fastweb”  is an Italian ISP operating under the name “Fastweb SpA,IT” from which a large number of WordPress brute-force hacking attempts originate.

Intended Audience

This article is primarily intended for clients of Glimmernet’s WordPress Hosting offering, but will be applicable to anyone who administers WordPress sites running Wordfence.

Instructions

To successfully block Fastwebnet.it from accessing your site, you will first need to install the Wordfence plugin.  Information on Wordfence can be found at http://www.wordfence.com/ and the plugin can be downloaded directly from inside of your WordPress installation or by going to https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/

Once Wordfence is installed, you can begin blocking IP addresses by simply logging in to your WordPress admin panel and going to Wordfence >> Advanced Blocking.  On this tab you will find an input for the IP address range.  You’ll need to enter all 37 of the following ranges individually.  We recommend naming them “Fastwebnet.it Block X of Y” but you can give them whatever name you want.

The 37 IP address ranges that you need to block are:

• 2.224.0.0 – 2.239.255.255
• 5.61.216.0 – 5.61.223.255
• 5.152.240.0 – 5.152.247.255
• 31.131.240.0 – 31.131.247.255
• 37.186.192.0 – 37.186.255.255
• 46.255.240.0 – 46.255.243.255
• 46.255.245.0 – 46.255.247.255
• 62.101.64.0 – 62.101.127.255
• 62.177.0.0 – 62.177.31.255
• 64.126.250.0 – 64.126.250.255
• 80.73.224.0 – 80.73.239.255
• 81.208.0.0 – 81.208.127.255
• 83.103.0.0 – 83.103.127.255
• 85.18.0.0 – 85.18.255.255
• 89.96.0.0 – 89.97.255.255
• 91.205.80.0 – 91.205.83.255
• 91.225.244.0 – 91.225.247.255
• 92.223.128.0 – 92.223.255.255
• 93.32.0.0 – 93.63.255.255
• 151.90.0.0 – 151.90.255.255
• 158.255.240.0 – 158.255.247.255
• 176.122.196.0 – 176.122.198.255
• 185.7.112.0 – 185.7.115.255
• 185.13.220.0 – 185.13.223.255
• 185.17.156.0 – 185.17.159.255
• 185.25.136.0 – 185.25.137.255
• 185.27.72.0 – 185.27.72.255
• 185.36.72.0 – 185.36.75.255
• 185.43.16.0 – 185.43.19.255
• 188.95.16.0 – 188.95.16.255
• 192.92.104.0 – 192.92.106.255
• 193.43.17.0 – 193.43.17.255
• 193.109.90.0 – 193.109.90.255
• 193.193.0.0 – 193.193.31.255
• 212.77.64.0 – 212.77.95.255
• 213.140.0.0 – 213.140.31.255
• 213.156.32.0 – 213.156.63.255

Recap

Using WordFence is a simple way to block traffic from a ISPs such as Fastwebnet.it which are sources for brute-force hacking attempts against WordPress installations.  This approach will block ALL traffic in the IP address ranges listed above, so be sure that this is an acceptable tradeoff for security before implementing this approach.