How to Show Your WordPress Website with an IP Address
While it is great to have a powerful blog that gets tons of traffic, it can be frustrating to have it live only online. Sure, you can always put up placeholder text and images to show when an IP is not available, but why not use your actual content?
One of the perks of being a content creator for a major website is being able to show off your work in progress. However, since your content is essentially owned by someone else, this convenience comes with some restrictions. If you are worried about leaking private information or having your content ripped off, you can take comfort in knowing that you are not alone. The good news is, there are solutions.
If you run a WordPress blog, you can utilize tools like Cloudflare’s 1Password to securely manage your content’s publish dates and prevent unwanted visitors from accessing it when your content is live.
Use a Cloudflare Workers App
With a Cloudflare Workers app, you can securely access your WordPress content from anywhere. This app is integrated with your WordPress site, so all you need to do is install the app, link it to your 1Password, and you’re ready to go. When you log in to your Cloudflare dashboard, you will see all of the websites, blogs, and other media that you have uploaded to your account. From here, you can click on any of the items to bring up more details, including the name, description, and cost of the plan. You can also change the publish date for any content that you choose.
From your WordPress dashboard, head to Tools | Crypto and click Generate SSH Key.
You will now have a dedicated SSH key that you can use with the Cloudflare app. To use this key, navigate to Apps | Cloudflare and click on Get Started. You can now use the Cloudflare app to access your WordPress content whenever you wish.
Why would you want to have your content available online when you are working on it? The answer is simple. If you are ever going to show it to someone, you will need to have it online first. However, you don’t want to be displaying your work to just anyone, so you will need to restrict access to certain people or IPs. Luckily, Cloudflare offers a security feature that can help with this. You can set up one-time passwords (OTPs) for specific users or groups. When you create an account, you can choose to have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled. 2FA allows you to log in to your account using either your username or password, as well as a security code that is generated using Google Authenticator or Authy. The advantage of 2FA is that even if someone gets your password, they cannot access your account without the security code.
Use IP Restrictions And GeoIP
Just because your WordPress content is online doesn’t mean that it has to be accessible to the whole world. If you are worried about people from outside your network accessing your content, you can restrict this using IP restrictions and GeoIP. With these tools, you can identify the location of an IP address and limit the amount of data that it can consume.
You can use IP restrictions to let certain IPs see your content, while blocking access to others. To do this, navigate to Tools | Crypto in your WordPress dashboard. Here, you will see a list of all your IP addresses. Clicking on the IP address will take you to a screen similar to this:
You can now enter the URL of your content in the Where box and choose how you want to restrict access to it from there:
You can enter the IP address of a competitor in the Conflict With box and choose how you want to handle these addresses:
At the bottom of this window, you will see a link that says Manage IP Restrictions. Here, you can set up new IP restrictions or modify existing ones. When you are finished, click on Update Restrictions.
With IP restrictions, you can block an entire country from accessing your content or allow only a select group of countries to do so. You can also choose to allow or deny IPs based on your own network.
Set Up HTTPS Using Let’s Encrypt
In the previous section, we discussed how to show your content when it is not yet published. While this is an important security measure to take when publishing your content, it can be even more critical when viewing it. When you are on a website that is not yet protected by HTTPS, any information that you enter, such as a username, password, or credit card number, is at risk of being intercepted by someone with malicious intent.
In order to protect all your content, you need to set up HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt. With Let’s Encrypt, all you need to do is create a free account and enter the domain names that you want to secure, whether this is your personal blog or a business website. Once you enter these, you will see a list of all the domains that are available for you to use. You can add as many as you wish, but you should at least set up one for your business:
The next step is to click on the Get Started button to continue. On the next screen, you will be asked to pick a plan and choose a certificate to secure your site.
The cheapest plan is $0.00/month for one domain and offers free certificates. However, for the sake of this tutorial, we will choose the Plus plan, which costs $12.50/month and offers a free certificate and offers free certificates for three domains.
Once you have made your selections, click on Create Domain to continue. Once the certificate has been created, you can review it in detail on the next screen. You will need to upload the certificate to your CMS as part of the process.
From your WordPress dashboard, head to Tools | Crypto and click on the Edit button next to the certificate for your site. You will now need to click on the View Certificate button to display the full certificate details. Make sure to print the certificate for future reference.
Use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
While we are on the subject of security, we should also point out that a VPN is a great way to protect your personal information when on the go or when using public Wi-Fi. When you connect to a VPN, all your internet traffic is encrypted so that your personal information – such as banking details – cannot be intercepted. Plus, using a VPN will make your internet connection look like it is coming from a different location, potentially preventing you from being tracked online. In the next section, we will discuss how easy it is to utilize a VPN with WordPress.
Use A VPN With WordPress To Secure Your Content
With a VPN installed on your device, you can access your WordPress content anywhere, as its security measures are all handled remotely. This means that not only can you protect your content from unauthorized access or distribution when it is live, but you can also do so while on the move. For added security, you can use a VPN to encrypt all your internet traffic – whether this is while browsing the web or while sending and receiving emails.
To securely access your content from anywhere, you will need to install the Cloudflare app on your device. Once this is done, log in with your 1Password. If you are on a public Wi-Fi connection, you should install the VPN app and ensure that your device is set up to use a VPN. Once you are connected, you should see a padlock icon in the address bar of your browser as you navigate the web. This indicates that all your internet traffic is encrypted, preventing anyone, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, from being able to monitor your activity. When you are connected to a VPN, the websites that you visit will see “this website uses a private network” as part of their security certificate. The truth is, you never have to worry about your personal information being intercepted or shared, as all the activity on your device is encrypted.
Use A Password Manager To Secure Your Content
A password manager is a great way to keep all your passwords organized and easy to access whenever you need them. It can be very easy to forget your passwords when you need to log in to a website, especially if you use the same username and password for multiple accounts. A password manager will make remembering these passwords much easier and allow you to login to all your accounts from one place. The next section will discuss how you can use a password manager to secure your WordPress content.