FAQ

What can I do in case I have locked myself out?

In case you have locked yourself out of your own installation, you have two alternatives to get back into your Joomla installation:

• If you have access to the database behind Joomla (e.g. via phpmyadmin), then you can go to the table #__bfstop_bannedip (where #_ must be replaced by your database prefix); delete the entry with your IP address.
• Alternatively, if you have FTP access to the server running Joomla!, you can also move the file "bfstop.php" in the folder "plugins/system/bfstop/bfstop.php" to another location, e.g. to "plugins/system/bfstop/bfstop.php.bak". Note that this will disable the whole plugin, though! You can then go to the backend, go to the list of blocked IP addresses (Components -> Brute Force Stop Administration), and unblock yours. Then it's safe to move the bfstop.php file back to its old location.

What can I do if something doesn't work as expected?

It is always worth to take a look at your webserver and php logfile first; if there's nothing there, enable logging on plugin side (see "How do I turn on logging?", below); repeat the process which leads to the unexpected behavior, and see if something meaningful turns up in the logfile; possibly you can then already resolve the problem yourself. If you find that something is wrong which you don't think you can do anything about, and which is an error in bfstop, then create an issue here: https://github.com/codeling/bfstop/issues

How do I turn on logging?

• Go to the bfstop configuration (Extensions -> Plugins -> "System - Brute Force Stop")
• In newer versions (starting with 0.9.11):
• Under "Advanced settings", set "Logging" to "Detailed information"
• In versions prior to 0.9.11:
• Under "Advanced settings", set "Logging" to "enabled". The log file is named "plg_system_bfstop.log.php", and resides in the configured Joomla! log directory. Note that the file only exists if there already were some log entries.

How do I find out what has changed in a new version?

Check the Changelog: https://github.com/codeling/bfstop/blob/master/CHANGELOG