Visitors linking to my pictures, how to stop that

[zeus]

I know that Tripod has some kind of system that if some one is linking to the pictures they got a a white baground that says tripod.

I have a problem that many of my visitors are linking to my pictures and thats not the point I want them to download the pictures or set it as background, the other way it uses my server power + they dont see the ads which is the only income for this site.

Anybody know how to change this, maybe like like Tripod does.

zeus

[Eric_Jarvis]

every few days change the file name?

I've heard people suggest replacing the image file that is being illicitly linked to by pornographic or insulting images...but I couldn't possibly suggest that as a solution no matter how well it works

[celerityfm]

Instead of directly linking to the images you link to a script that displays the images-- it also checks the HTTP_REFER and if it doesn't match up to your site, it displays an alternative image.. I'm sure you can find one out there as it is a pretty widely used technology.

[Sinner_G]

Eric, I like that solution :).

celerityfm, what would hinder me to surf the site, follow the link and there get the exact URL of the image, which I could then link directly to from another site?

[engine]

I suppose it depends on how many pictures are involved. You could always rename the pictures directory with one change and simply modify the address in your site.
For an ongoing solution celerityfm has a good idea.

[moonbiter]

If you are running Apache with the mod_rewrite module installed you can modify your .htaccess file [thesitewizard.com] to prevent image hotlinking.

If you don't meet those requirements, you could try this php solution [thesitewizard.com] instead.

[DaveN]

the problem with celerityfm solution is if i enter the site form google the http referer would be google.

The referer is from the previous page you would have to do a double load.

The real problem is once the image is load into the browser once ther you can just get the properties of the image.

one possible solution would be to use thumbnails with a javascript popup driven by a dynamic asp page.

with the JS you can call an asp page to look in the database for the image path and then throw it a popup(disable mouse buttons and menus)

DaveN

[joshie76]

I remember a thread recently discussed someone's findings that some older browsers (NN4 etc) weren't passing up the correct HTTP_REFERER for embedded objects like images and scripts.

The HTTP_REFERER was only being sent by the browser when the user clicked on a link. I can't say for sure that this is the case but beware!

I can't find the post, sorry, I've trawled and used the search without any luck.

[zeus]

Thanks everybody there is some great solutions here I have apache so I will try that first, but it is not just one picture there is many.

thanks again, I hope I can help you sometime.

zeus

[zeus]

ohh no it has something to do with CGI, I dont know anything about that I just make my web sites. What is ASCII? where can I make a text in that.

zeus

[Sinner_G]

LOL, ASCII [webopedia.com]

High-end tools like standard windows editor ;)

[zeus]

Im sorry sinner but I can not save it as ASCII in those programs I have tried, do you know some specific.

Ones again I dont know nothing about anything other then SEO,HTML and flash nothing els in programming.

zeus

[Sinner_G]

Okay, are we talking about the same editor? The one you find in the menu under 'Accessories'? Also called notepad (not sure about the name in english as my Windows is in german).

Open that, copy the code from the web page into it and then select 'save as...'. Save it as anything.txt unto your desktop.

Then go to your desktop, right-click the file and select 'rename'. Call it chimage.php.

[zeus]

Im tring to Modify my .htaccess File because I got apache, but you say that I should wright or copy my text to notpad save it as text file, but what about ASCII where does that come in.

You can answer in German I can alot of languages.

zeus

[Sinner_G]

Oh, sorry, thought you were trying the php version.

But the principle is the same. If you have a .htaccess file on your server, download it and open it with the notepad. Then copy the code from the 'thesitewizard' page into that file, save it and upload it back to your server.

ASCII is just plain text. That is what the notepad produces.

[rewboss]

To make an .htaccess file:

1. Using a standard text editor (e.g. Microsoft's Notepad, or Mac's Simple Text (?)), create your file.

2. Save it as .htaccess. To make sure this works properly, you might want to set your PC to show file extensions. The name must be:

.htaccess

...i.e, nothing before the dot. Save it, then check using Windows Explorer that it is indeed .htaccess and not, say, .htaccess.txt (which can happen). Rename if necessary. Some text editors won't allow you to save anything without a file name; in that case, save it as x.htaccess and then rename it. If all else fails, you can upload it as x.htaccess and then use your FTP client to rename it on the server.

3. Upload. Now comes the ASCII bit.

Your FTP client can upload in either binary mode or ASCII mode. ASCII is used for text files, binary for images, Flash files, sound files etc. It uses the file extension to work out whether to use ASCII or binary. If your FTP client doesn't recognize .htaccess, it will most likely default to binary. This will probably mangle your .htaccess file; so your FTP client should have a menu somewhere that allows you to enter file extensions for upload in ASCII mode.

4. Most likely, you won't see your .htaccess file once it's uploaded. This is because file names beginning with a dot are usually "hidden". Your FTP client may have a box where you can enter a "mask" -- if you type -a into that box, you should see your .htaccess file.

[zeus]

Damn I think I did it, I just followed some of the links from my logs that are linking to my pictures and the picture from my site diddent show up.

thank you

zeus