Stopping linking on other sites
 

Is there anyway I can stop people from linking to pics uploaded onto my site on other forums etc?

Especially as I can't afford endless amounts of bandwidth.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

Excellent question, I hope there is a solution for it.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

Putting links to your photos is one thing, using photos hosted on your website is another.
Either way the solution is similar. Just search google for stop (or disable) hotlink.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

The best way would probably be to use a .htaccess file to block people from linking any images from your server.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

You can do it with a .htaccess file.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

Doh. He beat me to it. :D

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

Brian (or anybody) what would you place in your .htaccess file to stop file linking?

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

Here's the section from my .htaccess. Put it in the root of your site, and it should stop anyone from linking to any file on your site.

You'll see that I have several domains pointed to my site, so I have those listed so that they will be able to show the images while browsing the site under any of those domain names.

I also have to list the name of the "alternate" image, so that it can be displayed.

Your mileage will vary, but this should give you a start...


If you try to link to any image on my site, you should get:

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

(That space in the list of extensions, inside the WAV, shouldn't be there. Something about the code displayer I guess.)

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

That's fantastic guys! what's the extention for the file, is it .php or .html ?

Cheers.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

It has to be called .htaccess

And mine is on Apache. The commands may differ for IIS, and your host has to allow the RewriteEngine.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

just worked it out, doh!

This is a good site http://www.htmlbasix.com/disablehotlinking.shtml

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

Just an FYI, there will be an option in RC3 to take care of this for you. ;)

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

By category or site-wide?

(crosses fingers that the answer will be by category even though I know the new file structure makes that a tad difficult :p )

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

If it was even possible by category then it would be very difficult at the least. It will just be a setting that will create the .htaccess script for you and place it in your /gallery/files folder. Nothing too fancy, but should get the job done and is as easy as changing a setting.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

Can't blame a guy for trying! :p

:D

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

If it had the option of storing the images in a directory outside the web root (like I do with my vBulletin attachments), and used a script to serve up the images, that would take care of it, because then you could handle it all with permissions.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

The only problem with that is you would then have to store your images/thumbails in different folders, or use that same script to display the thumbnails, which would add a good 5-7 queries to the page for each thumbnail.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

True.

Re: Stopping linking on other sites
 

this is a great tutorial. i understand it now. thanks guys.