How To Stop Image Hot Linking for a selected directory.

[Avalon 1]

Those of you that don't know what is meant by 'hotlinking', it is when someone directly links to an image on your site so it will display on their site. This is what is called 'bandwidth theft' and being as accounts here have a limit on bandwidth, your bandwidth limit could be exceeded by someone else hotlinking to your images.

 

As most users of cPanel will know, there is an option to disable hotlinking of images in the "Site Management Tools" section.

However, this disables hotlinking to all directories, what if you only want to disable hotlinking on some directories? Perhaps you want to people to link to some images, say an advertising banner for your site or something similar?

 

Here's how to do it. Open a text editor like Notepad, copy the code below and paste it into the editor.

 

RewriteEngine onRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?mudmall.com/.*$ [NC]RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$  mudmall.com/img/nolink.gif [R,NC]

Change the domain name where is says, 'mudmall.com' to your domain name and change the 'RewriteRule' line so it has the file extensions you want to deny access to. What I have there will cover most image formats, but you may want to add extensions like 'avi', 'mp3', 'wmv' if you have those types of files. Then change the RewriteRule URL so it points to an image you want displayed when someone tries to hotlink to your file, or you can remove the URL if you don't want to display an image. If you do use an image, make sure it is in an unprotected directory and keep the file size small, mine is only 1.3Kb. Otherwise you will be defeating the purpose of disabling the hotlink.

 

Finally, save the file with the name '.htaccess', (note the period * in front of the name). Now upload this file to the directory/s you want to protect.

 

This is the end result. Here is an image hosted at Imageshack.

 

Here is the result of trying to hotlink to that same image at my site.

 

I hope you find this useful.

[Saint_Michael 3]

hmmm interesting, tutorial me i would have done it the more agressive way spam email boxes report his ip number something like that.but luckly for me i don't have to many images to be hotlinked.good job avalon.

[truefusion 3]

Those of you that don't know what is meant by 'hotlinking', it is when someone directly links to an image on your site so it will display on their site.

It's not really only a direct link to an image, but to a file. But, this tutorial is only for images, obviously.

[Avalon 1]

It's not really only a direct link to an image, but to a file. But, this tutorial is only for images, obviously.

183824[/snapback]

Thanks for the clarification truefusion, you are of course absolutley correct. The same .htaccess file idea can be used for any file type. But putting an alternate image for the file is pointless if the original file is not an image, as it will not display.

[Mich 0]

Here's how to do it.� Open a text editor like Notepad, copy the code below and paste it into the editor.

 

RewriteEngine onRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?mudmall.com/.*$ [NC]RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ mudmall.com/img/nolink.gif [R,NC]

Change the domain name where is says, 'mudmall.com' to your domain name and change the 'RewriteRule' line so it has the file extensions you want to deny access to. What I have there will cover most image formats, but you may want to add extensions like 'avi', 'mp3', 'wmv' if you have those types of files. Then change the RewriteRule URL so it points to an image you want displayed when someone tries to hotlink to your file, or you can remove the URL if you don't want to display an image. If you do use an image, make sure it is in an unprotected directory and keep the file size small, mine is only 1.3Kb. Otherwise you will be defeating the purpose of disabling the hotlink.

 

Finally, save the file with the name '.htaccess', (note the period * in front of the name). Now upload this file to the directory/s you want to protect.

 

183755

 

Got it, thanks!

 

My husband was awake so I was able to print it off for future reference. I don't know about adding copies of this file to every folder, as I have so many. For now I am going to stick to using my cPanel hot link protection.

Edited December 16, 2016 by OpaQue (see edit history)

[Richard 0]

they this seems cool for my new site. i would use this now but people havent hotlinked me yet

[smartbei 0]

lol...Nice. I need to learn how to use the .htaccess page with all the errors and things...

[rogeruk 0]

Nice tutorial, gonna come in handy with my upcomming website. Nothing fancy but hot linking images, stealing bandwith etc its all good.Thanks for the tut. good work

[Kioku 0]

Nothing fancy but hot linking images, stealing bandwith etc its all good.

Having one's bandwith slashed down isn't a good thing.

Anyway, if I recall correctly, CPANEL's method is the way easier than the alternative method. This guide should help people from having their bandwith totally messed with, though I'd imagine. Good job.

[Avalon 1]

Yes, cPanel's method is much simpler, but like I pointed out in my first post...

However, this disables hotlinking to all directories, what if you only want to disable hotlinking on some directories? Perhaps you want to people to link to some images, say an advertising banner for your site or something similar?

This is the whole point of the alternative method.

[Dawiss 0]

Nice thing.. I have seen such things on diffrent sites.. This could stop thous who always take ideas of signatures in theyr websites or diffrent sigs..I'll definatly use this on my new site.. becaus eit's very useful thing

[Dooga 0]

Here is one problem with this method. You are using the HTTP referal information. Some software (like Ad Muncher) for example, let you change your REFERAL information. If I change the referal information to always be "google.com" for example, then all the images on your site would be broken!

[Lyon2 0]

Also something similar, with php, is here:

http://www.htmlcenter.com/tutorials/

[Canada Eh895 0]

Can this script be used for things other than through cPanel? If so, how would I go about installing it? If not, is there a script out there that can do the same thing?Great script, thoughCanada Eh895

[WindAndWater 0]

Canada, this script can be used with pretty much any webserver. Simply save it as .htaccess, and use a ftp (or scp) program to upload it to your website like you'd upload a normal image or html file. It will be effective for the directory you upload it to, and to all of its subdirectories.