Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : Hot Linking

[illusion]

I have a hot linking problem on one of my sites. i wanted to create a anti hotlinking system to stop anyone from hotlinking pics from my site like the free host angelfire does. i installed a anti leech cgi script but it doesn't give me the same affect as angelfire. anyone got any idea how i can set that up?

[Duster]

There are a number of scripts that prevent bandwidth stealing, which is what hot linking does. Many graphics sites use them. There's also an Apache mod that can prevent it.

[Tim Greer]

Yes, mod_rewrite can accomplish this task quite well. If you're still having this problem and don't know how to install or use it, let me know.

[kunal]

cant you just use php or perls http_referer to make it work?

[Tim Greer]

Originally posted by kunal
cant you just use php or perls http_referer to make it work?

It depends on what you're protecting. How and if the images are generated, etc. If they are pulled from PHP or other generated pages that display the images, then you can use the referrer in that aspect. However, that won't stop them from linking directly to them, based on the referrer, if it doesn't filter through something to do the checking. This is why mod_rewrite is perfect for this as well as many other cool things.

[kunal]

you can do something like this right?

http://wwww.blah.com?picture.php?id=666

[Tim Greer]

Originally posted by kunal
you can do something like this right?

http://wwww.blah.com?picture.php?id=666

Sure, with a PHP script, and if the referrer checks out, you display whatever that image that the ID number is associated with. I'd stil; suggest mod_rewrite though, it can be implemented globally, or per directory or user directory. It does some very cool things and is faster.