There are two main reasons to avoid the use of .htaccess files.

The first of these is performance. When AllowOverride is set to allow the use of .htaccess files, httpd will look in every directory for .htaccess files. Thus, permitting .htaccess files causes a performance hit, whether or not you actually even use them!
Also, the .htaccess file is loaded every time a document is requested.

I personally prefer using the .htaccess method as it allows me
1.) Quick editing
2.) No restarting of httpd/apache

but my DorkBlog is such a small thing and I don't have access to the conf where I'm hosted.

and I'm kind of lazy after years in IT.

1 members found this post helpful.

Dear Habitual,
Since I prefer to go with the apache.conf file method so I just need to block this ip in my iptables rite. Is there anything else I can do further with the apache.conf for further hardening besides removing indexing, stop unused modules ?

You can either,
1.) block it in your apache.conf (deny from ip.ad.dr.ess) OR
2.) block the same IP using iptables.

For further apache hardening, see references at https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...1/#post2122954