I need mod rewrite to deny all .edu domains
 

Or to redirect them to 404 page.... PLEASE help

Thanks!

I think doing the lookup will hurt if you've got reasonable traffic

I just need to block all .edu domains via my .htaccess.... anyone know how?

Is it deny domain .edu ?

By default apache gets only the ip of the visitor and not the hostname.
In order to block hostnames ending in .edu you'd have to reverse all the ips
that are visiting your sites.
Reverse resolution its a pretty slow process so like he said if you have lots
of traffic this isn't an option.
You're only escape would be a database like maxmind's (aka geoip database)
that has the .edu ips.

Ok so let's say I'm willing to sacrifice the process time to block all .edu domains... how do I do it?

I appreciate your help on this.. thanks!

to redirect to a page:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} *\.edu
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/404.html$1 [R,L]

to just drop the request:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} *\.edu
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [L]

"should" work. You may need to tweak the RewriteCond string match.

Plus:
in your apache config.

OK thanks guys. Are you sure I have to do the hostnamelookups call?

So

HostnameLookups On [in the apache config] and

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} *\.edu
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [L]

in my .htaccess?

Yes.
Just be warned that every visitor will have a small delay before reaching your
site while the ip address is resolved.