How do you know if the plugin is working? Like if you want to customize the banned response? Well, there are several ways to go about it.
Method One (easiest)
Go to “Basic Settings” and configure as follows:
- Enable Plugin – enable
- Ignore Users – disable
- Login Page – disable
- Admin Area – disable
After saving the changes, you will be able to ban your own visits to the front-end (non-admin) pages on your site, without actually banning yourself from the Admin Area or Login Page. Just remember to restore access via the Tower when you are finished testing.
Method Two (moderate)
Create a new WordPress user and log in using a second browser. Then as you surf around the site, you can monitor and ban the user via the first browser. Alternately, you can use a free proxy extension for your second browser and test as a proxy visitor.
Method Three (advanced)
Open two browser tabs. Tab 1 is the Armory. Tab 2 is a good proxy service. With Banhammer enabled, visit your site’s homepage via proxy. Then jump over to the Armory and ban the proxy IP address. Then retry the proxy visit to the homepage; it should be denied access. Remember to restore access or delete the banned IP via the Tower when finished testing.
If you get locked out while testing..
You can always restore access with the Banhammer Unlock plugin.