DnP PHP Gateway Firewall

Installation for vBulletin Forum

Upload all files from package to your forum_root

Open global.php using Notepad.

Find

// identify where we are
define(‘VB_AREA’, ‘Forum’);

Add BEFORE

if(file_exists(‘dnp_fw.php’)){require_once(‘dnp_fw.php’);}

Simply remove this line to deactivate the firewall.

Save and Reupload global.php to your server. Done!

List of Search Engines can be found in dnp_fw_config.php file. Here is the original code

To permit another Search Engine, simply add search engine agent name before:

Example :

Sorry, Connection from your IP Address is not allowed!

Sounds like something deadly gone wrong, doesn’t it? Actually it is just DnP Firewall Gateway being too overprotective for your website.

The reason you see this message is because the request information sent by an untrusted domain. The firewall compares a connection’s current location to a defined domain list , and if it does not match anything that means it is receiving information from a foul source. However, this may happen for the first time when you have not properly configured the domain list. You can easily add or modify this list in dnp_fw_config.php file.

This is how the domain list section looks like in this file :

I highly recommend all webmasters who are using DnP Gateway come to setup the domain list for their website. Thus it is not mentioned in the installation step, it is necessary to change the default values to strengthen the firewall.

Example :

If your domain name is ip address , use only the ip address and no www to be placed anywhere.
Example :

No trail at the end for all cases.
A backup file should always be kept just in case.
Save all changes when you’re done editing and reupload the file back to server.

Open dnp_fw_template.php with Notepad or any Webpage Editor.

1 – For official templates, replace all code in between

#############################################
#    TEMPLATE FOR DnP FIRE WALL PASTE BELOW    #
#############################################  

and

#############################################
#    TEMPLATE FOR DnP FIRE WALL ENDED ABOVE    #
#############################################  

with the Template Code you are received from the template topic. Save the file after changes and reupload to server.

2 – For your own custom design template (Advanced)

Simply include this Redirect button anywhere in between the body tag of your layout.

<form name=dnp_firewall method=get action=dnp_fw.php>
    <input type=hidden value="ready" name="dnp_firewall_redirect">
    <input type=submit value=" Click here to enter " alt="Click to continue to your destination">
    </form>

The entire layout code must also be placed in the variable $Layout

$Layout = ' your layout code with Redirect button go here ';

After v1.3, DnP Firewall has an additional protection besides the Gateway itself. This 2nd layer runs silently in the background and in common situations, visitors may never see it. When an established connection shows signs of flooding or continuously sending multiple requests under a short period of time, this is when 2nd layer protection (also call Smart Anti-Flooding, a system inherited from DnP Instant! Musicbox) activates itself.

In the event your website receives high unusual amount of bad requests, 2nd layer protection kicks in. First it checks for penalty counts (tolerance level) to make sure whether this malicious client is actually trying to do something bad, not to misjudge an innocent guest.

After that — by restricting the client from access to the website– this 2nd layer protection will keep your server from execute any further query therefore saving you valuable CPU resource / bandwidth in order to deal with the attack. An error message by default shows Multiple Requests have been directly targeted our forum, as the result the current access is temporarily prohibited for 10 second(s). A stop page will appear and only cost you 170 bytes of bandwidth and zero query!

There are 3 options in dnp_fw_config.php that you definitely should take a look to adapt those settings on your board.

Simple as it sounds, whether if you want to turn it on, or not.

The higher the time , the longer the client has to wait if it’s considered as an attacker.

Tolerance level. How many times the 2nd layer protection should ignore when a client sending constant requests before giving it a blockage.

Advanced
The 2nd Layer protection also sports one hidden setting that is not shown in config file. This setting is for how long it should take before clear out the penalty count. Open dnp_fw.php and find:

Change 10 to a different amount of time client does not send any request (in seconds) then 2nd layer should reset the penalty count to 0. e.g : 3 or 4 seconds would be fine.