[kall]

I have been up for the past hour trying to figure out a way of stopping some punkasses from linking to our cool smilies.

It would be fine if they were to just save it and serve it themselves, but they are just linking to us and using NZBs bandwidth.

I am trying to make .htaccess block it, but doesn't seem to be working.

[Darkling]

Originally Posted by kall

I have been up for the past hour trying to figure out a way of stopping some punkasses from linking to our cool smilies.

It would be fine if they were to just save it and serve it themselves, but they are just linking to us and using NZBs bandwidth.

I am trying to make .htaccess block it, but doesn't seem to be working.

Try saving this as .htaccess in your ./images folder

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://66.194.238.6.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.nzboards.com/forums.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.nzboards.com.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://nzboards.com.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*$ http://www.nzboards.com/forums/index.php [R,L]
</IfModule>

Make sure the IP and all the subdomains are correct.

It should display a broken image to someone hotlinking to your images and redirect anyone trying to open them via a link on their website to your forums index.

If you have any other subdomains e.g. gallery.nzboards.com etc add them to the list of allowed sites together with any other site you want to have access to your images.

[kall]

Hmm..

I will try it, but it sounds nowhere near as much fun as changing a couple of emoticons to read 'YOU ARE DIRTY BANDWIDTH THIEVES!' ...

[Sparklechick]

Originally Posted by kall

I have been up for the past hour trying to figure out a way of stopping some punkasses from linking to our cool smilies.

It would be fine if they were to just save it and serve it themselves, but they are just linking to us and using NZBs bandwidth.

I am trying to make .htaccess block it, but doesn't seem to be working.

I suppose I should feel quite flattered about this.

*looks all proud-like*

[kall]

*nods*

Theft is definitely the sincerest form of flattery.

Originally Posted by NZBs Stats

Listing the top 30 referring URLs by the number of redirected requests, sorted by the number of redirected requests.

#reqs: URL
-----: ---
21404: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t591|pleasedo=followup
6807: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fblogs.t6|offset=150
3991: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t583|pleasedo=followup
2646: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t586|pleasedo=followup
2631: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fmainchat.t48|offset=20
1441: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fmainchat.t48|offset=10
1312: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle|pleasedo=postnew
1016: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fpvsquizzies.t29|pleasedo=followup
867: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t585|pleasedo=followup
751: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fblogs.t5.p63|pleasedo=followup
748: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fblogs.t5|pleasedo=followup
714: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t583.p21|pleasedo=follow up&quote=yep
500: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fcelebgossip|pleasedo=postnew
435: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t581|pleasedo=followup
416: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t444|pleasedo=followup
354: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t589|pleasedo=followup
333: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t583.p31|pleasedo=follow up&quote=yep
318: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fmeetyouthere.t10|pleasedo=followup
287: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t590
263: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t592|pleasedo=followup
219: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.ffunzone|pleasedo=postnew
199: http://www.nzboards.com/
194: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fpvsquizzies.t25.p23|pleasedo=followu p&quote=yep
185: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t583.p29|pleasedo=follow up&quote=yep
179: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t590|pleasedo=followup
175: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t584|pleasedo=followup
158: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fpvsquizzies.t26|pleasedo=followup
151: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.fmainchat.t48
148: http://www.nzboards.com/forums/
144: http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t587|pleasedo=followup
1380: [not listed: 88 URLs]

[Darkling]

Originally Posted by kall

*nods*

Theft is definitely the sincerest form of flattery.

At least you feature somewhere in the top 30.

[kall]

Yeah, twice! Yay us!

I don't think the protection is working.

I spose I could always deny all runboard.com's IP...

[Darkling]

Originally Posted by kall

Yeah, twice! Yay us!

I don't think the protection is working.

I spose I could always deny all runboard.com's IP...

There are ways it could be working and you just don't know it.

• If you have the images cached you view them from there instead of requesting them again.
• If you just enter the address of the image into your browser's address bar it will work as requests with no referrer are not blocked.
• If you try to create a file with a hot link for testing on your PC then it will still be shown as, for security reasons, no referrer is sent by local files.

Try emptying your cache and then viewing one of the sites you know to have hot linked your images to see it has worked.


*edit*


It must be your cache

I just tried hotlinking to some of your images and all I got was broken images.

[kall]

What about when I clear my cache and enter an IMG link to a smilie I have never viewed using IE, and it still comes up?

*edit* after your edit:

Is that still the case?

[Darkling]

Originally Posted by kall

What about when I clear my cache and enter an IMG link to a smilie I have never viewed using IE, and it still comes up?

*edit* after your edit:

Is that still the case?

I see you have replaced the redirect page with a redirect image.

Attached.

You may be seeing an image cached by your ISP if you have cleared your own.

How are you trying to view the images?

Don't type the address straight into the address bar as you will still see them
Also be sure that the page you are calling the image from is not being allowed because it is either on your PC, on a site you have specified as allowed, or on the same server and being granted access by the same IP you have.

[kall]

Ahh no, that's all good.

I do believe the 'on the same server' may have applied, as I was using the host's forum to test...

[Darkling]

Originally Posted by kall

Ahh no, that's all good.

I do believe the 'on the same server' may have applied, as I was using the host's forum to test...

I expect that was it then.

It all looks to be working just fine.

[NiteFenix]

Kall, you've been going about this all the wrong way. You have cPanel right? Have you gone through it's features lately?

If you have you will see there is a feature called Hotlink Protection. It does exactly what you are trying to accomplish here

Good luck man!

[kall]

Originally Posted by NiteFenix

Kall, you've been going about this all the wrong way. You have cPanel right? Have you gone through it's features lately?

If you have you will see there is a feature called Hotlink Protection. It does exactly what you are trying to accomplish here

Good luck man!

*grins*

I know..and I enabled it, and tested it on the host's server.

Or something happened that still allowed me to see the images.

As they are now, some dirty runboard.com people will be getting 'DIRTY BANDWIDTH THIEF' instead of a smilie.

[NiteFenix]

Coolness. If you're still having problems with bandwidth theft head on over to Distant-Help.com and post about it there. Someone will be able to direct you in the right direction for a script which will stop it dead in it's tracks

[kall]

Originally Posted by NiteFenix

Coolness. If you're still having problems with bandwidth theft head on over to Distant-Help.com and post about it there. Someone will be able to direct you in the right direction for a script which will stop it dead in it's tracks

Cheers man.

I hadn't ever noticed this as a problem until cpanel... I mean, 21404 requests from "http://com3.runboard.com/bflaminghell.foutercircle.t591|pleasedo=followup"?

Somewhat excessive, specially when almost all of the requests in the top 10 are from that site.

[NiteFenix]

It might mean that that forum/site is very busy and several of their members use images from your site in their posts. You should put a warning somewhere on your site in big bold letters that you frown upon bandwidth theft and violators of this NZBoard law will be dealt with accordingly.

[kall]

I have just been given the suggestion to make it link not to 'DIRTY BANDWIDTH THIEF', but some porn image on yet another site.

Now there's a thought...

Person posts what they think is the link to the smilie kicking the other smilie in the nads, but instead gets something far more disturbing.