denying spam hosts ssh access - good idea?

[Anton Shterenlikht]

I'm thinking of denying ssh access to host from which
I get brute force ssh attacks.

HOwever, I see in /etc/hosts.allow:

# Wrapping sshd(8) is not normally a good idea, but if you
# need to do it, here's how
#sshd : .evil.cracker.example.com : deny

Why is it not a good idea?

Also, apparently in older ssh there was DenyHosts option,
but no longer in the current version.
Is there a replacement for DenyHOsts?
Or is there a good reason for such option not to be used?

many thanks
anton


-- 
Anton Shterenlikht
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