In reply to Ronald.

Ronald, there is actually no way to just turn comments off period. Rather, it's a series of questions that more and more narrowly restricts comments. You can disable comments on new posts (but not as easily on pages),but the comment system itself is still in place, and still functioning - and still a huge target for comment spammers. They don't check to see if their comments post, they just slam comments at you.

"Login restriction by IP / Country: what, if you are on holidays?"

Ummm, add the country you are going to? ;)