Automatic blocking

[Ashley M. Kirchner]

    I looked around on the web and found a few different programs to do 
this, so I thought I'd ask here for advice: what are people using to 
automatically block incoming attacks via ssh and ftp?  I'm referring to 
those script kiddies who simply hit your system over and over and over 
again in a very short period of time, probing both the ssh as well as 
the ftp daemons trying to log in.

    And related to the question, what's the best practice here, adding 
them to /etc/hosts.deny or dropping the traffic with iptables?