sshguard

[psypro]

Context
I open up ssh to internett, so I can login from outside my house, to my server at home.
I have added a strong sshkey, and disabled login with password.
I have added a bruteforce part to my pf.conf from : https://home.nuug.no/~peter/pf/en/bruteforce.html

But I still see login attempt from external user in my /var/log/authlog

So I installed sshgurad

pkg_add sshguard

and added sshgurad table to my pf.conf

table <sshguard> persist
block in proto tcp from <sshguard>

But how can i verify it is working? is it configured out of the box, or do I need to tell it manually to read /var/log/authlog.

And on a more meta level, does program like sshguard strengthen or weaken the security. Should not a -b 15000 key be strong enough in it self? Another service running, increase risk from errors or backdoors in program. But on a more psychological term, it anoys me to se login attempts from hostile user again and again, and it clutter my /var/log/authlog.