Is it normal to get hundreds of break-in attempts per day?
You can eliminate 99% of these attempted logins by changing your SSH port from the standard 22 to something else (say 2177 or whatever).  Login as root (or su), open the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and change the port number.  Save your changes and restart ssh with "/etc/init.d/ssh restart" and you are good to go.  You'll want to update any SSH clients you use to use the proper port (-p option on command line). Hope this helps!