Wordfence

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What You’ll Learn

• Installing the Wordfence extension and plugin on child sites
• Configuring global and per-site Wordfence settings
• Scanning child sites for security issues
• Monitoring live traffic across your network

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Installing the MainWP Wordfence Extension requires two steps:

• Install and activate the add-on on your MainWP Dashboard site.
• Install and activate Wordfence Security on your child sites.

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1. Installing the Add-on

The MainWP Wordfence Extension is a WordPress plugin. Follow these steps on your MainWP Dashboard site, not on a child site: The add-on is now ready for use. Alternatively, upload the extracted mainwp-wordfence-extension directory to wp-content/plugins on the MainWP Dashboard site, then activate and enable it.

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2. Installing Wordfence Security

Install and activate Wordfence Security on each child site that you want to manage through the extension. The MainWP Wordfence Extension can now detect and manage Wordfence Security on that child site.

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Wordfence Settings

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Global Settings

Go to MainWP > Add-ons > Security > Wordfence. The extension provides these network-level tabs:

• Wordfence Overview
• Options
• Live Traffic
• Blocking
• Firewall
• Scan
• Diagnostics

Use the settings tabs to define network defaults. Saving a network settings section synchronizes that section to child sites that are not using individual overrides. Sites with Override general settings enabled keep their individual settings. If you install Wordfence Security on additional child sites, sync them and re-save each relevant network settings tab to apply the defaults.

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Individual Site Settings

The extension also provides per-site Wordfence settings.

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Wordfence Dashboard

Go to MainWP > Add-ons > Security > Wordfence and open the Wordfence Overview tab. The sites table shows child sites where Wordfence Security is installed, including plugin status, version, visibility, last scan, and update availability.

• If the plugin is inactive, the Activate Plugin action appears in the site row.
• If an update is available, the Update Plugin action appears in the site row.

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Available Actions

The row action menu includes Overview, Edit, Open Wordfence, and Hide Plugin or Unhide Plugin. For active installations, it also includes Scan Site, Live Traffic, Blocking, and Scan Results. Update Plugin appears when an update is available.

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Important Notes

If you know that you have the plugin installed on a child site, but the child site doesn’t appear in the list, try to re-sync your sites.

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How to Scan Child Sites With the MainWP Wordfence Extension

The Wordfence extension enables you to trigger the scanning process on child sites directly from your dashboard. To do this,

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Monitor Child Sites Live Traffic

To monitor live traffic for one child site from your MainWP Dashboard:

• Open the Wordfence Overview tab.
• Locate the child site and click Live Traffic in its row action menu.
• The extension opens the live traffic view for that site.

If live traffic is disabled, open the network-level Live Traffic tab, set Enable live traffic logging to All Traffic, and click Save Settings. If the site uses individual overrides, configure the same option from the site’s Wordfence > Live traffic tab instead.

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Monitor Network Live Traffic

Open the Live Traffic tab on the Wordfence page to view traffic from active child sites in one place.

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Related Resources

• Security Add-ons - Browse all security tools
• Vulnerability Checker Extension - Scan for known vulnerabilities
• Sucuri Extension - Alternative security integration