🌐 What is an ASN and how does it protect me?
Every company that provides internet access (Google, Amazon AWS, OVH, your hosting provider...) has a unique identifier called an ASN (Autonomous System Number). For example, AS16509 is Amazon AWS. All IP addresses from that company "belong" to its ASN.
🎯 Why does this protect my site?
Many automated attacks (bots trying thousands of passwords, mass scans, DDoS) don't come from a home computer — they come from cheap servers rented by the minute in the cloud (Hetzner, OVH, DigitalOcean, etc.). Blocking by country is very blunt (it blocks regular people from that country); blocking by ASN is more precise: you block "that company's rental servers," not real people.
🔍 On every visit to your site
Before applying geo-blocking, rate limiting or any other protection, SeenSecure checks the visitor's real IP and detects which ASN it belongs to (reusing the same service it already uses to detect the country, without needing an extra database).
The 4 modes, explained one by one
✅ Allow
This company is never blocked, no matter what happens with the country or other rules. Useful to allow, for example, Google's ASN even if you have its country blocked. Only takes real effect when the Firewall is in "Protection/Block" mode — in Monitor nothing is blocked anyway, so there would be nothing to "allow".
🚫 Block
Any visit from that ASN is blocked outright. Use it for providers you only ever get attacks from and never legitimate visitors (e.g. a cheap rental server provider repeatedly used to attack you).
👁️ Dark (Log only)
Blocks nothing — it just logs in the activity record whenever someone from that ASN visits your site. Perfect for "spying" for a while before deciding if it's worth actually blocking it. Always logs activity, regardless of the Firewall mode.
⚖️ Gray (Middle ground)
If the visit comes from that ASN AND also has a suspicious signal (doesn't identify as a browser, uses known attack tools, or claims to be a Google bot but isn't) → it's blocked. If it comes from that ASN but looks like normal traffic → it's let through. Ideal for legitimate cloud providers that attackers also sometimes use.
How to create a rule
- Don't know a provider's ASN number? Look it up by company name on bgp.he.net or bgpview.io.
- Each ASN must have the format
ASxxxx(e.g.AS16509); if you put several in the same rule, separate them with commas. - Choose the mode (Allow / Block / Dark / Gray) as explained above, give it a descriptive name (e.g. "Amazon AWS") and save.
❓ FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions
🔹 Can I look up a company's ASN automatically from the plugin?
Not for now. Automatic lookup services (BGPView) used to exist but stopped being reliably available, so SeenSecure doesn't depend on an external service that could disappear. ASN entry is manual, with direct links to bgp.he.net and bgpview.io to look them up.
🔹 Does ASN blocking replace Geo-Blocking?
No, they're complementary. Geo-Blocking filters by country (useful if your site only makes sense for a specific market); ASN filters by infrastructure provider (useful against rental servers used to attack, regardless of which country they're registered in). You can use both at once.
🔹 Does it require a PRO license?
The FREE plan allows a limited number of active ASN rules (the panel shows the exact limit on the Firewall → ASN tab); with PRO, rules are unlimited. The feature itself — the 4 modes, automatic ASN detection for each visitor — works the same on both plans; only how many rules you can have active at once changes.