Question: How to find people hotlinking your site?

Discussion in 'Apache' started by misohoni, Jun 13, 2004.

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  1. #1
    I can see from my stats that certain people are hotlinking to certain files. I changed the .htaccess file and did other things such as rename the hotlinked files and then look to see who was still linking to the old version and then banning their IP.

    How do I find out what web sites are hotlinking me ?
     
    misohoni, Jun 13, 2004 IP
  2. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #2
    What do you mean by hotlinking?
    Do you have stats or logging for your site, they should show you who is visiting which pages, from what referrer and ip.

    This might also be of interest: http://sarahk.pcpropertymanager.com/blogspam.php

    Sarah
     
    sarahk, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  3. expat

    expat Stranger from a far land

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    #3
    hi,
    if you are "lazy" like me there is a nice tool here to create all required
    http://www.htmlbasix.com/disablehotlinking.shtml

    I use to send alternative pic's if it starts bothering me and just look at who tried to load that pic in the stats once a week.

    You can start to have a lot fun with this I used to send pics with "winner of the lousy webaward" etc....

    M
     
    expat, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  4. misohoni

    misohoni Notable Member

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    #4
    Expat, thanks. I played around with .htaccess but it doesn't seem to work.
    But I'll look at the link you gave.

    Sarahhk, thanks. Hotlinking is where a website links to your files (images, movies, music etc.,) and attempts to pass it as their own - whilst using your bandwidth.

    My Stats program only records "legal" links. i've got a record of IP's where users are linking to my files directly and I'm able to ban them. But I want to find where the source is so I can contact the webmaster and inform them that should not be hotlinking my files...
     
    misohoni, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  5. expat

    expat Stranger from a far land

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    #5
    Don't forget to exclude your own site from the exclusion.
    Your ISP maybe helpful as well as it is even better to include this in the htppd.conf file. If you happen to have or run cpanel it's usually included there.
    M

    PS here is the link to a good apache tutorial

    http://apache-server.com/tutorials/ATimage-theft.html

    PPS make sure you close brakets (I see a lot o code snipets where for example [NF is not closed - should be [NF] and have the longer directives on one line. I always switch off word wrap in notepad to make sure.
     
    expat, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  6. Help Desk

    Help Desk Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Help Desk, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  7. debunked

    debunked Prominent Member

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    #7
    Images on your site in your sig file all show up as an X so I think it is working, but not how you want it to.
     
    debunked, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  8. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #8
    You can find out who is doing it by putting images in a locked folder (using .htaccess) and calling them via a php script. The php script then logs the request with the referrer. It also checks the referrer and bans the bad ones. But you are still logging the good ones.

    Bear in mind that by using curl I can change the referrer so it looks like I'm at an allowed site, but I can't change my ip.
     
    sarahk, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  9. misohoni

    misohoni Notable Member

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    #9
    Wow thanks guys, I'll go through it.

    Sarahk (Hong Kong?), thanks. Where would I be able to find this php script, sounds good.
     
    misohoni, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  10. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #10
    Hong Kong? No, I'm in New Zealand

    I can get the script for you but there was a similar, easily implemented option in one of those links. I haven't done it but it looks good

    http://apache-server.com/tutorials/ATimage-theft.html#logging

    The advantage to this approach is you don't have to consider if an image needs protecting, they all are. So you can edit your pages normally. Cool.

    Sarah
     
    sarahk, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  11. vagrant

    vagrant Peon

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    #11
    dont forget that it may effect google cache ( etc ) pages unless you allow it's ip's.

    and often the ip you get will be the person looking at the page NOT the site with a copy, so try NOT to get too paranoide and look where there refearer to the page was to find the image to locate the page they are ariving from... could well be goggle cache or yahoo's one.
     
    vagrant, Jun 14, 2004 IP
  12. misohoni

    misohoni Notable Member

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    #12
    Thanks for the advice. After blocking certain IP's I just realised that...oops!
     
    misohoni, Jun 15, 2004 IP
  13. hulkster

    hulkster Peon

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    #13
    Hulk has had a little bit of fun with this - check out this eBay auction ;-)
     
    hulkster, Jun 16, 2004 IP
  14. vord

    vord Peon

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    #14
    I think they found you out - the ebay photos look pretty sensible to me (unless the bloke with the smile is doing something to the young lady that I haven't spotted).

    :eek:
     
    vord, Jun 16, 2004 IP
  15. misohoni

    misohoni Notable Member

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    #15
    maybe it's the little kids...
     
    misohoni, Jun 17, 2004 IP
  16. hulkster

    hulkster Peon

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    #16
    Here's is the actual image hot-linked from the eBay auction - now go back and look at the eBay Auction ... and look at the photo underneath the text that says it is "THIS IS OVER 6 1/2 FEET LONG ... SOLID STAINLESS COOKING GRATES ... etc." and tell me if the picture below that looks like it matches that description! ;-)

    Note that I could put ANYTHING there, but I was nice ...

    alek
     
    hulkster, Jun 17, 2004 IP
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