spammers, extermination of

[Kaylee]

Here ya go, all IP address ranges for country "China" (total of 423,224,320 IPs), as of last Friday.
I have it setup with multiple ranges per line, on the theory that's faster, but I'm a programmer, not-a-sysadmin.
Frater can give you better advise.

Here's how you install it:

• use an SFTP client to go to the public main directory for VD
  
• there should be a file named ".htaccess" already there
  
• copy the existing ".htaccess" to your computer (it's preciousssss)
  
• make a separate copy on your local laptop, then copy it to a CD/DVD/USB-stick or any other backup media (did I mention it's preciousss?!?)
  
• add the stuff in the attached plain text file to the bottom of your main local ".htaccess", and always add a blank line or two afterwards
  
• very quickly: rename your server ".htaccess" (in case something goes wrong), then copy your local laptop version to the server
  
• try accessing VD, and do Some Stuff, and if nothing blows up, breathe a sign of relief
  
• if anything is at all wonky, delete or rename the server file that you hacked, and restore/rename the original
  

That probably sounds a bit intimidating, but it's totally routine admin stuff.
If you make a mistake, almost always it will be real obvious and the whole site will be broken.
Just keep your SFTP client open, and you can very quickly fix things by rolling back the changes.

If you'd rather I do this, feel free to email me some temporary server SFTP/FTP credentials, and I'll do it tonight or early tomorrow.