What is a DDoS Attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack floods your server with massive amounts of traffic to make your website unavailable. Attackers use networks of compromised computers (botnets) to generate this traffic.
Step 1 – Enable Cloudflare (Free Tier)
Cloudflare is the most effective first line of defence:
1. Create a free account at cloudflare.com
2. Add your domain
3. Change your nameservers to Cloudflare's
4. Enable "I'm Under Attack" mode during an active attack
5. Turn on Cloudflare's WAF (Web Application Firewall)
Step 2 – Enable Rate Limiting
Rate limiting blocks excessive requests from a single IP:
- Cloudflare Free: Basic rate limiting rules
- Cloudflare Pro: Advanced rate limiting
For Nginx servers, add:
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=10r/s;
Step 3 – webzworld VPS/Cloud DDoS Protection
webzworld's VPS and Cloud plans include network-level DDoS mitigation. We use Anycast scrubbing to filter malicious traffic before it reaches your server.
Step 4 – Block Malicious IPs
After an attack, review your Nginx/Apache access logs for attacking IPs and block them:
iptables -A INPUT -s ATTACKER_IP -j DROP
Step 5 – Keep Your Software Updated
Vulnerabilities in outdated software are often exploited to amplify attacks. Keep WordPress, plugins, and server packages updated.
Under Active Attack?
Contact webzworld support immediately if your server is under attack. Our network team can apply emergency mitigation rules.