How do I set up MiseGuard without knowing security, and see what it did for me?

The settings, with no knowledge needed

Open MiseGuard → Settings and pick the site (or Defaults for new sites). The groups are listed on the left (on a phone, a Group list to choose from), each with its icon, what it is set to and a dot when it has changes not saved yet. One group shows at a time:

1. What it is doing. Beside the group's name a small tile shows what it did on this site: attacks blocked a day (Firewall), password guesses stopped a day (Login protection), the latest scans (Malware scan), spam stopped against real enquiries (Form filter), a square a day for backups and for uptime. With nothing yet it says No data yet; it is never guessed.
2. Pick a mode. Firewall (with Login protection), Malware scan and Mail (the form filter) each have large mode cards:
   • Off (for Mail: Not filtered, every message is delivered): switches the protection off, the same as its switch on Protection. It asks first and says what stops. Picking any other mode switches it back on.
   • Relaxed: fewest false alarms.
   • Normal (recommended): the balance most sites need.
   • Lock it down: blocks more, with a note of what it may block (for example a robot check for real visitors when they sign in).
   • Custom shows as soon as a value differs from the modes, with "differs from Normal in 3 places" and Back to Normal. One click sets every value of the area at once (for the Firewall, Login protection with it) as one change you can undo. The other groups have Relaxed, Recommended (★) and Strict, or Standard and Strict.
3. Or answer the questions. Each setting is a plain question on the left with its control on the right (a switch, a number with its unit, a list to choose from, or a list of countries or addresses). The ⓘ says what it means and the risk of the value you chose; the recommended value shows when yours differs, with Use recommended. A value outside what is allowed is marked before anything is saved.
4. Advanced holds the raw values (points that block a request, the rule level, trusted proxies, folders left out of the scan and the like), with Reset to recommended.

With these settings says in plain words, one line each with an icon, what your choices do, for example: "Someone who types 5 wrong passwords within 15 minutes is locked out for 30 minutes", with the protection level as a bar (Relaxed, Normal, Strict).

Changes wait in the bar at the bottom ("3 unsaved changes in Firewall and Uptime"): Save (or Save all), Discard, or Save this group only. Leaving for another site with changes not saved asks first.

Changes (beside the site picker) lists every change with who made it, when and where (here, on the website, a template, or your provider's support with their reason). Undo puts the values back as they were.

On Protection, Settings beside a switch opens that protection's settings in place, with its own Save.

Your provider can lock a setting or narrow what it can be set to; you still see it, with a lock and Set by your provider. Settings that do not apply to your site's platform are not shown.

Your own templates

Set an area the way you like, then press Save as my template: give it a name and a short note. It keeps the values of that area as you see them (changes not saved yet included). Your templates show after the modes, with Apply…, Rename and Delete; the one a site holds is marked In use.

Apply… lets you choose the sites (and the defaults for new sites), then shows what changes on each before anything is applied: each value from and to, a value changed to fit what your provider allows ("the template says 120 minutes"), a setting left as it is because your provider set it, and a site the area does not apply to. Each site gets its own line in its Changes with Undo. Agencies keep one template for all their client sites. Your provider sets how many templates a workspace keeps (20 unless changed) and can switch saving them off.

What each group sets

• Firewall (WordPress and Laravel): how many points of attack signs block a request, the stricter rule level, blocking visitors who pretend to be Google or Bing, countries kept out (or only some countries let in), addresses always kept out or let in, trusted proxies, being behind Cloudflare, and a temporary fix you want off.
• Login protection (WordPress): wrong passwords before a lock-out, within how many minutes, how long the lock-out lasts, a robot check on sign-in (when your provider has one set up), closing xmlrpc.php, hiding whether the name or the password was wrong, refusing "admin" and other common names that are not your users, and hiding your usernames from visitors.
• Malware scan (WordPress): every day, three days or week; whether a file that is certainly malware is fixed for you straight away (with undo for a month); folders whose findings are ignored.
• Form filter: how many links look like spam, from how much doubt the AI takes a second look, whether unsure messages wait in the quarantine, what happens to sales pitches, how long stopped messages are kept, the digest's hour, and the capture options.
• Backups (WordPress): what the daily backup holds (everything, without the media, or the database only), how long backups are kept (your package sets the longest) and from what hour they run.
• Uptime: how often the site is checked, after how many failed checks you are told, how much of the home page must change to count as odd, and e-mail and phone alerts.
• Vulnerability alerts (WordPress): from which severity you are e-mailed.
• Alerts (the whole workspace, under Defaults for new sites): which phone notifications you get, quiet hours (nothing about enquiries or attacks at night; malware and a failed backup still come through), and the weekly e-mail and who gets it.

Defaults for new sites

MiseGuard → Settings → Defaults for new sites holds the values each new site starts with. A site takes them the first time its plugin checks in; it never changes a site that chose its own.

The same settings in WordPress

The plugin shows the same settings under its Protection tab: the mode cards of the Firewall, the Malware scan and Mail (Off with the same question first, Relaxed, Normal, Lock it down, the template in use by name, Back to Normal), the presets and the questions. Saving your own templates is in MiseGuard: the plugin links to it. A change made there is saved with the time and your WordPress username and sent at once. Whichever change is newest counts, here or there, and both sides list it. If someone changed the same setting in MiseGuard after you, theirs stands and the plugin says so.

What MiseGuard did for you

MiseGuard → Activity lists everything done or seen on your sites, newest first, one sentence each: attacks blocked (what kind, from which address and country), addresses locked out after wrong passwords, bad bots turned away, malware scans and what they found, files fixed or put back, spam and sales pitches stopped and real enquiries delivered, backups made or failed, updates and vulnerabilities found, the site going down and coming back, the certificate renewed, and every switch and setting changed and by whom. Filter by area, by how serious, by period or by site, or search the words.

The plugin's own events are in it too, marked from the site: the plugin installed or updated, a form e-mail the site had to send itself because the filter could not be reached in time, visitors turned away who tried to list your usernames, and the firewall pausing itself.

Nothing in the activity is about your visitors: never a message, a name or what anyone typed.

The figures and the protection score

The Overview and each site show attacks blocked (today, 7 and 30 days), logins protected (password guessing stopped), spam stopped and real enquiries delivered, malware scans (and whether the site is clean), backups (and the last good one) and uptime. A figure from an area your package does not include says so; it is never guessed.

The protection score starts at 100. Each kind of open problem takes its points off once: the site down or malware 30, a known vulnerability 20, a failed backup 15, the certificate or the domain running out 10, the firewall off 10, and smaller ones 5. The score shows each problem with its points and a Fix it link; fix it and the points come back at the next check. From 90 the site reads You're protected, below 70 At risk, and between them Needs attention.

The charts

Each figure has its own small chart, from the same stored counts (nothing is estimated):

• Attacks blocked: a bar a day over the last 30 days, and how the last 7 days compare with the 7 before.
• Logins protected: password guessing stopped, a bar a day.
• Spam stopped: one bar split into what was stopped and the real enquiries that reached you.
• Malware scans: each scan on a 30-day line, a short tick when clean, a diamond when files need a look, a triangle when malware was found.
• Backups: a square a day for the last 14 days: a full square for a good backup, a red one with a mark under it for a failed one, an outline for a day without one.
• Uptime: a square a day for the last 90 days, like a status page: up, some downtime (a shorter amber square) or down (red, with a mark under it).
• The protection score: a ring on its bands (at risk, needs attention, protected), with how it moved since last week. The score is kept once a day, so the change shows from the second week.

The Overview also shows Attacks blocked over 30 days by type (injection attempts, bad bots and scanners, password guessing, your block lists, other attacks) and Form messages by kind (real enquiries, spam and harmful, sales pitches): point at a day to read its figures, or press Show table for every figure. Activity groups the lines by day, shows the lines a day as bars above the list, and has a chip per area with its count.

A chart with nothing to show yet says so, with what fills it, for example "No data yet: attacks the firewall blocks". The windows (30, 14 and 90 days) and the bands are set by your provider.

In WordPress

The plugin's Dashboard tab says You're protected or what needs your attention, each with a Fix it button, with the score ring, the figures with their charts, the two larger charts and the latest activity; Check now checks in at once. The Activity tab lists what was done for the site. The WordPress dashboard has a small MiseGuard box, and the admin bar a coloured dot: green protected, amber needs attention, red at risk. Only people who manage the site see them.

The weekly e-mail

Each Monday morning MiseGuard e-mails what it did for your sites that week: attacks blocked, password guessing stopped, spam stopped, enquiries delivered, scans, backups and uptime, and what needs your attention. It is on by default; switch it off, or send it to everyone who sees the sites, under Defaults for new sites → Alerts. A week with nothing to tell sends nothing.