Fix Log: MainWP 403 Error on cinchws.com

Date: June 24, 2025
Affected Sites:

• Our self-hosted MainWP dashboard (hosted on a private subdomain)
• cinchws.com (Main site)

The Problem

Our MainWP dashboard stopped communicating with cinchws.com, which manages our support plans and subscriptions. MainWP marked the site as offline, test connections failed with a 403 error, and attempts to re-add the site were blocked entirely.

What We Checked

• ModSecurity: No rules triggered
• CSF Firewall: No blocks on our server’s IP (69.167.148.138)
• LiteSpeed Logs: No clear cause
• cURL request to the root domain returned a 403:

curl -I https://cinchws.com

But hitting a basic test file outside of WordPress responded with 200 OK — confirming it wasn’t a server-level issue. Hmm…

The Cause

After disabling plugins one by one, we found that Blogvault’s internal firewall had blocked requests from our own server.

Even though both sites are on the same physical server, their different public IPs caused Blogvault to treat traffic from the dashboard as suspicious. It didn’t take down the site, but internal issues beyond the MainWP connection issue persisted, with WP Cron affected the most. And nobody wants WP Cron to fail.

The Fix

1. Logged into Blogvault
2. Navigated to the Cinch > Security & Firewall > Ozone Layer
3. Found and whitelisted our server IP
4. Cleared any firewall cache and re-enabled Blogvault

The 403 errors disappeared, and MainWP recognized the child site again immediately.

Takeaways

• Plugin-level firewalls can silently block access, even when server-level tools (like ModSecurity) show nothing
• A 403 from WordPress often means the application layer is the issue — not the server
• Security plugins like Blogvault, MalCare, and Wordfence may block API-based or headless traffic like curl, WP-CLI, or monitoring tools
• Creating a test file outside of WordPress is a great way to isolate the issue
• Always whitelist your MainWP dashboard’s IP in firewall plugins to avoid these stealthy lockouts

Need a Hand?

This kind of issue stumped us for a bit — and we built the site. If you’re running into strange errors or want peace of mind that someone’s watching your site closely, check out our support plans.