WordPress Database Prefix

The database prefix setting is particularly useful for increasing the security of your site and for housing multiple WordPress installations in a single database. By changing the default value of “wp_” to something randomly unique, you mitigate commonly targeted attack vectors and improve the overall security of your site. Here is the default setting:

$table_prefix  = 'wp_';

There are tons of crackers out there probing sites for this default database prefix. Changing it to something like “343P_” is a good way to avoid these types of targeted attacks.

You can also use this setting to install multiple instances of WordPress using the same database. Simply specify a unique database prefix for each installation:

$table_prefix  = 'wp1_'; // first blog
$table_prefix  = 'wp2_'; // second blog
$table_prefix  = 'wp3_'; // third blog