Matomo tracking, reporting, API do not require access to the Internet, for example if you are running in an Intranet or an infrastructure without any Internet connection.

What optional features in Matomo use the Internet

By default a few optional features which use Internet such as:

  • Email notifications when there is a new version of Matomo platform available (important for security)
  • the Marketplace (installing new plugins and downloading latest versions of plugins and themes).
  • Downloading the latest list of Devices to detect
  • Downloading the latest list of Referrer spammers
  • Downloading the latest list of Search Engines and Social networks
  • Downloading the latest geolocation database for more accurate geolocation of users
  • Sending SMS/text messages with scheduled reports
  • Getting the SEO widget to show the SEO report

Problems encountered when there is no Internet

When Internet is not available, usually these features will timeout after 10 seconds or so and display a warning/error message. Some examples of messages are: curl_exec: Connection timed out after 3000 milliseconds or curl_exec: couldn't connect to host or this error: Warning: file_get_contents (http://plugins.matomo.org/api/2.0/plugins) failed to open stream: HTTP request failed!.

Follow the instructions below to fix this error.

Allow Internet connections to official Matomo hostnames

We recommend if possible to allow Internet connection to the following hostnames:

  • api.matomo.org (getting notified when a new release is available including security releases),
  • builds.matomo.org (for the one-click update to work),
  • plugins.matomo.org (for the Marketplace).

This is usually done on your Network or in the Firewall used, so please reach out to your technical team responsible for the network or servers.

Alternatively you can disable all features that use Internet connections as described below.

Completely disable all Internet features

To completely disable all Internet-related features, please add the line enable_internet_features = 0 to the [General] section of your config/config.ini.php file.

Downloading plugins without Internet on the Matomo server

You can still download free plugins, as well as purchase premium plugins, directly on the Marketplace using your browser.

After you download or purchase plugin(s) on the Marketplace, you can install them manually in your Matomo.

Disable the Marketplace feature

If you are using a Matomo version before 3.6.0 or just want to disable the marketplace, you can do this by adding enable_marketplace = 0 to the [General] section of your config/config.ini.php file.

Previous FAQ: How do I uninstall Matomo?