.htaccess & hotlinking pictures

Smutferret · 2005-02-03, 04:35 PM

Hi Mr. Blue,

Here's a little something else to think about when using .htaccess files to protect images. If the person viewing your page (surfer or reviewer) happens to use firewall software that is set to strip the referrer field, all they will see on your page is broken images.

I'm not sure how big of a problem this is but stripping the HTTP_REFERRER field is a default setting in many firewall programs. It's used to help keep web sites from tracking your surfing habbits.

I use .htaccess files to protect my images from hotlinking and will continue to do so but it is food for thought.

As far as TGPs hotlinking thumbs, I know some TGP scripts d/l a copy of one of your thumbs (or ask you to u/l one) and crop it to size to use as a link to your gallery. I'm not sure if .htaccess would cause a problem there but I can see how it could.

Regards,
SF

2005-02-03, 04:35 PM	#4
Smutferret No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: MA, USA Posts: 231	Hi Mr. Blue, Here's a little something else to think about when using .htaccess files to protect images. If the person viewing your page (surfer or reviewer) happens to use firewall software that is set to strip the referrer field, all they will see on your page is broken images. I'm not sure how big of a problem this is but stripping the HTTP_REFERRER field is a default setting in many firewall programs. It's used to help keep web sites from tracking your surfing habbits. I use .htaccess files to protect my images from hotlinking and will continue to do so but it is food for thought. As far as TGPs hotlinking thumbs, I know some TGP scripts d/l a copy of one of your thumbs (or ask you to u/l one) and crop it to size to use as a link to your gallery. I'm not sure if .htaccess would cause a problem there but I can see how it could. Regards, SF __________________ Pornication Web Cams TGPX by JMB Software