Why Falcon cache engine is going to be removed?

This is a big loss. For me it has been the perfect cacher. Rendering queries to html on the drive. Why is it being removed?

Falcon engine’s ability to block brute force attacks at Apache level, instead of PHP/MySQL level, was the most important thing for me to keep Wordfence installed.

Caching was a nice addition, but I’ve quickly reverted today back to WP Fastest Cache that also sets correctly cache headers, something that Falcon engine didn’t do (among other things — feel free to check your sites on gtmetrix.com with each cache solution).

Now I will probably seek an alternative to Wordfence, one that also blocks brute force attackers at Apache level. Any suggestions?

Huge loss!!! all my site uses Falcon… Plus WorfFence only gave us like a DAY to prepare for this?? WTF? That’s not enough time. The notice should say starting 11/15/16, Falcon will stop flying, not just next release which comes the next day!!!!

In MHO, you did it as right as you wanted and you made it wrong writing those. You’ll never get your miliseconds back, not as you had it.
Maybe MM wanted you being desperate to disclose/decode the Falson fascination and share it through?
Take your chances.
Over.

As of Wordfence version 6.2.1, we are removing support for Falcon. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly. We discussed it internally for a while before we finally decided to remove it. We have released a statement about it on our blog:

https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/10/removing-falcon-cache-wordfence-heres-need-know/

The bottom line is that we’re focusing our energies on security, which we are very good at. If you need a recommendation for a caching solution, there is a great post at this link comparing caching plugins:

https://www.designbombs.com/top-wordpress-caching-plugins-compared/

Users that didn’t have Falcon enabled should no longer see “Performance Setup” in the wordfence menu on their sites. Users who came into the update with Falcon enabled should see it. Defining the constant WF_ENABLE_FALCON in your wp-config.php file will cause it to be shown no matter if it was or was not enabled prior to the update.

We have no plans to release this part of the plugin to the community at large as a separate plugin.

As always, thanks for your support and for using Wordfence.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by WFSupport.

Hmm, finally an official answer!

What about auto-blocking attackers through deny rules at .htaccess file?
It’s gone with Falcon engine?

Yeah boys, we are totally screwed, /me got tonns of abuses and we will have those kicked nicely.
Re official statement of “Plugin Author” we see as the other image we’ve got used to, same my first mother-in-law told me I was not guilty doing that wrong but she was.
Screw me while I was excited and found thy out

@yurking – I’m not sure if English is not your primary language or not, but that last post is impossible to read.

Apologies. You need to add this to wp-config.php to have the performance menu re-enabled until it is permanently removed.

define(WF_ENABLE_FALCON, ‘true’);

you’ve pasted this same “response” into every thread, but it does little to address the issue and really doesn’t come close to apologizing for or making up for the short notice. really unprofessional.

This response does not adequately answer the question and concerns of your user base. We are all still standing here with question marks above our heads and in shock. Please provide a REAL answer explaining the rationale for this step backward. I just cannot understand this.

If the falcon engine is your own creation and you have no plans to release it as a separate plugin the please open source it to allow others to pick it up. What a loss.

How have they not addressed the issue and how in the heck is getting 30+ days notice not enough? The blog post linked explains both their reasoning for it and their timeline. Their response absolutely answers the questions and the rationale for their decision. If that’s not enough, then that’s on you. Just because you can’t understand it doesn’t mean that they have to help you understand it.

Also, they have no obligation to open-source it. Falcon was such a small part of WordFence and there are better caching solutions out there. Don’t blame them for making a smart decision because it makes extra work for you.

Dear Mr Maunder, would you consider perhaps alternative actions to the immediate removal of Falcon.

* To enable people to plan the change in all the websites currently using Falcon, delay the removal until say 1 January 2017
* Also as another option, make a small charge for the use of the product to continue Falcon and support

At least the above enables a controlled change to take place which is more manageable and realistic and helps the large number of loyal followers who use your products.

I spent literally days trying to use Wordfence caching, it never worked for me, too simplistic. Or, to put it more accurately, too simplistic after I figured out how to get it to the point where it didn’t just crash my whole website.

The sophomoric nature of Wordfence caching might be a strength, but for me it was a weakness. I’m glad Wordfence caching is going away, for me it just clutters up the menus and who knows, perhaps even when not used it bloats the plugin.

I agree with Wordfence, they should concentrate on security. More, they should concentrate on proactive security, meaning defense. That means that most of the scan options are also rather useless. I don’t want to be told I’ve been hacked, I want to not be hacked in the first place. That’s the job of Wordfence, IMHO, to defend me from being hacked, and reduce bandwidth use by criminals.

MTN

Saxtus, we want to avoid writing IPs to .htacess as far as we can so we won’t be doing that in the future. However, as a replacement we will be implementing instant blocking of IPs via the Firewall.

I’m closing this thread now. If anyone has feature requests or more specific questions about remaining features please make a new post. Thanks!