OT: hotlink protection?

hi,

I posted a query about this on alt.html a couple days ago, but no one
responded. I realize it's OT here, but folks here have been so helpful in
the past I'm hoping there's someone who might know the answer. Thanks for
indulging me.

There's one website that repeatedly hotlinks to my images; one image alone
hass gotten 1351 hits from their website in the past 6 days. (Imagine what
that number will be by end of month.)

I'd like to block that site (but not all sites) from linking to my images.
Is there a way?

I did find this code online - the website it was on claimed it would help.
But it doesn't work; it also blocks some images from my own site! I found
some variations on this code on other sites & couldn't get them to work
either. What am I doing wrong? I'm so confused.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(www\.)?badsite.com.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mywebsite.com/images/hotlink.gif [R,L]

Also, is there a way that it can return an error rather than a 404 or a
redirect to an alternate image?

thanks so much!

~velvet~

On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:12:47 GMT, "greenvelvet" <spam (AT) verizon (DOT) net>
wrote:

hi,

I posted a query about this on alt.html a couple days ago, but no one
responded. I realize it's OT here, but folks here have been so helpful in
the past I'm hoping there's someone who might know the answer. Thanks for
indulging me.

There's one website that repeatedly hotlinks to my images; one image alone
hass gotten 1351 hits from their website in the past 6 days. (Imagine what
that number will be by end of month.)

I'd like to block that site (but not all sites) from linking to my images.
Is there a way?

I did find this code online - the website it was on claimed it would help.
But it doesn't work; it also blocks some images from my own site! I found
some variations on this code on other sites & couldn't get them to work
either. What am I doing wrong? I'm so confused.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(www\.)?badsite.com.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mywebsite.com/images/hotlink.gif [R,L]

Also, is there a way that it can return an error rather than a 404 or a
redirect to an alternate image?

thanks so much!

~velvet~

Hi ya
I had the same problem as you did. I got in touch with my hosting
company and they have successfully stopped people hotlinking to me.

They installed LeechBlocker.dll onto my site and that did the trick.

hth
plh
Paul

--
Wank a man off, and he will enjoy himself for a day. Teach a man how to wank, and he'll be a wanker for the rest of his life.


http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

"Paul" <webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote

On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:12:47 GMT, "greenvelvet" <spam (AT) verizon (DOT) net
wrote:

hi,

I posted a query about this on alt.html a couple days ago, but no one
responded. I realize it's OT here, but folks here have been so helpful in
the past I'm hoping there's someone who might know the answer. Thanks for
indulging me.

There's one website that repeatedly hotlinks to my images; one image alone
hass gotten 1351 hits from their website in the past 6 days. (Imagine what
that number will be by end of month.)

I'd like to block that site (but not all sites) from linking to my images.
Is there a way?

I did find this code online - the website it was on claimed it would
help.
But it doesn't work; it also blocks some images from my own site! I found
some variations on this code on other sites & couldn't get them to work
either. What am I doing wrong? I'm so confused.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(www\.)?badsite.com.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mywebsite.com/images/hotlink.gif [R,L]

Also, is there a way that it can return an error rather than a 404 or a
redirect to an alternate image?

thanks so much!

~velvet~


Hi ya
I had the same problem as you did. I got in touch with my hosting
company and they have successfully stopped people hotlinking to me.

They installed LeechBlocker.dll onto my site and that did the trick.

Thanks Paul. Does Leechblocker selectively block websites? There are some
sites that I'm OK with linking to images on my site. It is just one or two
that I'd like to block.

~ velvet ~

hth
plh
Paul

--

On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:38:01 GMT, "greenvelvet" <spam (AT) verizon (DOT) net>
wrote:

"Paul" <webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:1r8bk19o47iuf0v8eje64vutibmlarm62g (AT) 4ax (DOT) com...
On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:12:47 GMT, "greenvelvet" <spam (AT) verizon (DOT) net
wrote:

hi,

I posted a query about this on alt.html a couple days ago, but no one
responded. I realize it's OT here, but folks here have been so helpful in
the past I'm hoping there's someone who might know the answer. Thanks for
indulging me.

There's one website that repeatedly hotlinks to my images; one image alone
hass gotten 1351 hits from their website in the past 6 days. (Imagine what
that number will be by end of month.)

I'd like to block that site (but not all sites) from linking to my images.
Is there a way?

I did find this code online - the website it was on claimed it would
help.
But it doesn't work; it also blocks some images from my own site! I found
some variations on this code on other sites & couldn't get them to work
either. What am I doing wrong? I'm so confused.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(www\.)?badsite.com.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mywebsite.com/images/hotlink.gif [R,L]

Also, is there a way that it can return an error rather than a 404 or a
redirect to an alternate image?

thanks so much!

~velvet~


Hi ya
I had the same problem as you did. I got in touch with my hosting
company and they have successfully stopped people hotlinking to me.

They installed LeechBlocker.dll onto my site and that did the trick.


Thanks Paul. Does Leechblocker selectively block websites? There are some
sites that I'm OK with linking to images on my site. It is just one or two
that I'd like to block.

~ velvet ~

hth
plh
Paul

Hi Velvet

What it does is to block the images from being linked to.
They can still link to the URL, but not directly to the image.
AFAIK you can set it up to block certain types of images. eg. gif /
jpg / tiff etc.

Or, (I think) you can just block some eg block jpgs but allow gifs.

hth
plh
Paul


--
Wank a man off, and he will enjoy himself for a day. Teach a man how to wank, and he'll be a wanker for the rest of his life.


http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

greenvelvet wrote:

I did find this code online...

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(www\.)?badsite.com.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mywebsite.com/images/hotlink.gif [R,L]

Also, is there a way that it can return an error rather than a 404 or a
redirect to an alternate image?

This is a rule that you put into .htaccess, which is a configuration
file for the Apache web server. If you're using IIS, this won't help
you. I know nothing at all about IIS configuration.

Which web server software are you using?

RFM

"Fritz M" <nospam (AT) masoner (DOT) net> wrote

greenvelvet wrote:

I did find this code online...

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(www\.)?badsite.com.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mywebsite.com/images/hotlink.gif
[R,L]

Also, is there a way that it can return an error rather than a 404 or a
redirect to an alternate image?

This is a rule that you put into .htaccess, which is a configuration
file for the Apache web server. If you're using IIS, this won't help
you. I know nothing at all about IIS configuration.

Which web server software are you using?

RFM

Hi,

Sorry, I should have specified before -- it's indeed Apache (version
1.3.33).

The code did go into the .htaccess file. I tried variations of the code I
posted before, all found on web searches, but they either blocked images
from my own site (as well as those from others) or they didn't work at all.
To check, I tested between the site in question & another website I own.

(I regularly use .htaccess for 301 redirects, custom error pages, etc. and
that's very straightforward. But for issues such as this I must rely on code
found on the web, or the advice of others as I don't really understand what
the "Rewrite" code means or why it is written that way. )

any suggestions would be most welcome!

many thanks!
velvet.

greenvelvet wrote:

The code did go into the .htaccess file. I tried variations of the code I
posted before, all found on web searches, but they either blocked images
from my own site (as well as those from others) or they didn't work at all.

I redirect image requests that don't come from my own website. Hence,
the rule looks like this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]

Where "example.com" is my own website. This would replace the line in
your example that matches with "badsite." Everything else looks fine to
me.

RFM

On 6 Oct 2005 16:26:48 -0700, "Fritz M" <nospam (AT) masoner (DOT) net> wrote:

greenvelvet wrote:

The code did go into the .htaccess file. I tried variations of the code I
posted before, all found on web searches, but they either blocked images
from my own site (as well as those from others) or they didn't work at all.

I redirect image requests that don't come from my own website. Hence,
the rule looks like this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]

Where "example.com" is my own website. This would replace the line in
your example that matches with "badsite." Everything else looks fine to
me.

RFM

Thing is, that only stops *that* site. What happens when another, and
another, and another start doing it ?

plh
Paul

--
This is the sig that I have added. The one below is added after my message has left my PC.


http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
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"Fritz M" <nospam (AT) masoner (DOT) net> wrote

greenvelvet wrote:

The code did go into the .htaccess file. I tried variations of the code I
posted before, all found on web searches, but they either blocked images
from my own site (as well as those from others) or they didn't work at
all.

I redirect image requests that don't come from my own website. Hence,
the rule looks like this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]

Where "example.com" is my own website. This would replace the line in
your example that matches with "badsite." Everything else looks fine to
me.

RFM

Thanks so much. But how do I stop only one site from hotlinking? I don't
want to block all sites from linking to my images. Just the one that's
causing trouble.

- velvet

"Paul" <webmaster (AT) houstoncrafts (DOT) com> wrote

On 6 Oct 2005 16:26:48 -0700, "Fritz M" <nospam (AT) masoner (DOT) net> wrote:

greenvelvet wrote:

The code did go into the .htaccess file. I tried variations of the code
I
posted before, all found on web searches, but they either blocked images
from my own site (as well as those from others) or they didn't work at
all.

I redirect image requests that don't come from my own website. Hence,
the rule looks like this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example.com/.*$ [NC]

Where "example.com" is my own website. This would replace the line in
your example that matches with "badsite." Everything else looks fine to
me.

RFM

Thing is, that only stops *that* site. What happens when another, and
another, and another start doing it ?

plh
Paul

I don't care if some other sites occasionally hotlink to one of my images.
I'm cool with it. But when a fairly large image is being accessed over 1000
times in less than a week, that's problematic. I just want a way to block
particular website (or websites) that are using lots of bandwidth.

Still hoping for a way to block only that one site ~~~

~ velvet ~