M6RV6 wrote:What are CPU cycles, and what happens when you process a PHP?? And just what is a PHP?
My attempt at a "simple" explanation:
CPU cycle: The most basic of operations done by the computer processor. It takes a lot of these to actually do something useful. What we usually think of as an operation is really many many CPU cycles. A processor can only do so many of these during any given time.
PHP: The programming language this site is written in. The computer server for the site has to run some amount of PHP code every time someone accesses a page (even if they are banned as a user). It takes CPU cycles to run the code.
By blocking an IP address (their unique identifier on the Internet, kind of like a phone number), as opposed to checking if they are a valid user on the website (kind of like a particular person calling using a shared phone), it blocks them earlier on in the sequence of connection steps (you ignore their phone call entirely, instead of answering only to find that your friend's friend is drunk prank calling you at 2AM on your friend's phone), but it's definitely more drastic (it could have been your friend, after all). But, sometimes that's the only solution that works. Like if someone in Russia or Nigeria e-mails you saying they have a bunch of money they need to get rid of, you don't investigate, your ignore it or block it. It's real fun when you have to have your server's hosting provider do that at their main connection point because the bad guys have managed to flood the entire network on the way to your website server...
or you will have to wait for the divorce 
