Introduction To The Shield Dashboard Section

Shield Dashboard section is the most important part of the plugin - it contains options for the basic plugin settings.

Here you can

  • Configure plugin defaults
  • Switch on/off the plugin

The all Dashboard section options are accessible from within the main navigation menu > Dashboard > click to edit general plugin settings (gear icon) as shown in the screenshot below.

Shield Dashboard configuration options explanations

Option: Plugin Defaults

This option contains important default settings used through the plugin. Those are the following:

  • IP Source - Is a method of retrieving the user/visitor IP address. There are several methods:
    • Automatically detect visitor IP
    • REMOTE_ADDR - (recommended)
    • HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP
    • HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR
    • HTTP_X_FORWARDED
    • HTTP_X_REAL_IP
    • HTTP_X_SUCURI_CLIENTIP
    • HTTP_INCAP_CLIENT_IP
    • HTTP_X_SP_FORWARDED_IP
    • HTTP_FORWARDED
    • HTTP_CLIENT_IP

Note: If you don't know what your particular IP address is, please see here:

https://getshieldsecurity.com/my-ip

For better understanding the Shield plugin and the Visitor IP address detection, read the article here.

  • Show Plugin Badge - Display plugin badge on your site.

  • In-Plugin Notices - Display non-essential plugin notices and admin bar menu.

    By default Shield displays non-essential notices in the admin area and admin bar.

    This can be hidden by switching off this option.

  • Anonymous Usage Statistics - Allows us to gather some information around your use of the plugin.
  • Run In MU Mode - Setup the plugin to run as an MU-plugin to prevent accidental deactivation.
  • Self AutoUpdate - Controls the Shield Security plugin's auto-update.
  • Delete Plugin Settings - Removes all plugin options when you deactivate the plugin. If this option is disabled, all plugin settings will remain.
  • Temp Dir - Specify a temporary directory lets you tell Shield where it should start in its search for a writable directory.
  • Beta Access - Allow Shield to upgrade to beta and pre-release versions.

Option: Global Security Plugin Disable

Here you can completely enable or disable Shield plugin and all its features. (see the screenshot below)