Is there any way to automate a process to block repeated attempts from a specific IP address?

I had some bonehead try 20,000 different username/password combinations to get into my server... 0 successes.

But I'd really like it if I could install an app that would monitor that crap and just deny the IP after 3-4 tries.

--Will

apf and bfd will do that

denyhosts does just that, and is simple to install. http://denyhosts.sourceforge.net for more info. You will need to upgrade your Python version, but that's pretty straightforward as nothing on the RaQ really uses it anyway. To be safe, I put it in a separate dir (/home/python2 or something) and then reference that for the Denyhosts installation.