Comments on: Using .htaccess to redirect hotlinkers to another image

By: Michael O'Rourke

Michael O'Rourke — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:53:56 +0000

In regard to your .htaccess article. My problem is, I’ve had too
much success. That’s right, I’ve tried at least 30 different code snippets, yours being the latest. And they all block my own images, yours too. I’ve got the standard Apache Server setup. There must be a simple explanation. Any suggestions.

Thank you,

MO’R

By: stan

stan — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:10:39 +0000

Sorry, I made it in notepad not word

By: stan

stan — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:08:47 +0000

Hey there, thanks for the article.

I made an htaccess file following your directions but can’t seem to make it redirect to my website’s logo (which is always fun, free advertising).

I have both a gif and jpeg version of my logo at the address below and here is a copy of my htaccess (made in word, uploaded via ftp and then renamed simply “.htaccess”).

If you see something wrong below could you let me know? My pictures reside in the picture files below (the website name is fake):

Thanks!

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?mywebsitename.com [NC]
RewriteRule \.(png|gif|jpe?g)$ /pic/misc/logo.$1 [NC,L]

By: Tom Raftery

Tom Raftery — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:46:28 +0000

Jess,

absolutely - just put the address in the last line of the code before the .$1

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 05:06:15 +0000

Hi! This is awesome. And easy to understand! I appreciate it! Question though, is it possible that the directory where the images are stored can be changed?

By: Tom Raftery

Tom Raftery — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:24:11 +0000

You got it Patrick - the Last Rule prevents that from happenning - great question though. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

By: Patrick Vanhoucke

Patrick Vanhoucke — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:16:17 +0000

What will happen if the ’stolenimage’ itself is used by a hotlinker? Isn’t this creating an endless loop?

Shouldn’t you use something like:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/stolenimage.png [NC]

for every type of image as an additional condition? Or is the ‘last rule’ (L between square brackets) preventing the endless loop?

By: Fredy

Fredy — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 08:32:53 +0000

finally, what I was looking for… thanks a million for such a clean code.

By: Milan

Milan — Tue, 23 May 2006 18:14:10 +0000

Is there any way a similar bit of coding could solve this problem?

Thanks a lot for your help.

By: Robert Betts

Robert Betts — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 21:19:00 +0000

Question? If someone direct-links to an image on my site will google (and others) see this and count it as a link to my site and use it to raise my PageRank? If this is true I’d be shooting myself in the foot by discouraging direct-linking.

By: jukka

jukka — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:36:01 +0000

thanks for the clear code!