On host mitigation usually works. Most attacks are small.
Iptables definetly can help with real ddos attacks.
Iptables definetly can help with real ddos attacks.
Maybe we have different definitions of real DDoS attacks. What you mean is probably DoS attack, not DDoS (distributed).
If you have 1 gigabit pipe I can DoS (from one machine) you with 10 gigabit machine with ease and iptables will not help you at all.