[CentOS] .htaccess file

[Keith Keller]

On 2016-08-28, TE Dukes <tdukes at palmettoshopper.com> wrote:
>
> I'm just not following or understanding. The .htaccess file works but on a
> slow DSL, I don't want the hits.

What exactly is slow when you receive requests from remote clients that
you don't want?  Are you actually seeing problems when clients make
requests and Apache has to read in your 2MB .htaccess on every request?
And if so, you might also consider moving your blocking even higher, to
iptables rules, so that Apache never even has to deal with them.

> I added the following to my httpd.conf:
>
><Directory "/var/www/htdocs">
>     AddType text/htdocs ".txt"
></Directory>

> And copied my .htaccess to /var/www/htdocs as htaccess.txt

Where did you get the idea that this is how to do global Apache
configuration?  This won't actually do anything useful.

> In the example from the apache website, I don't get the: AddType
> text/example ".exm" Where did they come up .exm? 

They made it up as an example, to demonstrate how directives work in
.htaccess files versus global Apache config files.  It's not meant to
demonstrate how to add blocking rules to the global config.

Here's the main point of that page:

"Any directive that you can include in a .htaccess file is better set in
a Directory block, as it will have the same effect with better
performance."

So, to achieve what I think you're hoping, take all the IPs you're
denying in your .htaccess file, put them into a relevant Directory block
in a config file under /etc/httpd, reload Apache, and move your 
.htaccess file out of the way.  Then httpd will no longer have to read in
.htaccess for every HTTP request.

Or, alternatively, block those IPs using iptables instead.  However,
clients will still be able to make those requests, and that will still
use bandwidth on your DSL.  The only way to eliminate that altogether is
to block those requests on the other side of your link.  That's
something you'd have to work out with your ISP, but I don't think it's
common for ISPs to put up blocking rules solely for this purpose, or to
allow home users to configure such blocks themselves.

--keith

-- 
kkeller at wombat.san-francisco.ca.us