How to Block an IP address range using the .htaccess file

Question

I have detected that a range of IP addresses may be used in a malicious way and I don\'t know how to block it.

I would like to block the range 66.249.74.* from acces

Answer 1

I’ve just used

Order Allow,Deny
Deny from 188.143.*.*
Allow from all

as spam attack comes from xxx.xxx.0-80.0-80.