Hotlink Protection Tutorial (Apache Server - .htaccess files)
 

What is hotlinking and bandwidth theft?

Bandwidth theft or "hotlinking" is direct linking to a web site's files (images, video, etc.). An example would be using an <img> tag to display a JPEG image you found on someone else's web page so it will appear on your own site, eBay auction listing, weblog, forum message post, etc.

Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferred from a web site to a user's computer. When you view a web page, you are using that site's bandwidth to display the files. Since web hosts charge based on the amount of data transferred, bandwidth is an issue. If a site is over its monthly bandwidth, it's billed for the extra data or taken offline.

A simple analogy for bandwidth theft: Imagine a random stranger plugging into your electrical outlets, using your electricity without your consent, and you paying for it.

How Do I know I am hotlinking?

This is how you might display an image graphic file in the HTML on your own web page:
This tag tells the site to request the file image.jpg on the same server as the rest of the files on the site. If you were to hotlink an image from an outside server, the HTML might look like this:
This tag tells the site to request the image.jpg from a different server other than your own. Every time the page is loaded, the outside server has to use its bandwidth to display the image. To avoid this problem, don't link to files on servers that don't belong to you. To share images and files on your own web page, upload them to your own server's directory or to a free image hosting service that allows direct linking.

Why should I stop hotlinking?

Hotlinking can have a lot of undesirable consequences. One is the so-called "switcheroo". If you've linked to an image on someone's server, what's to prevent them from changing the image you linked to? This can have humorous results. Since most sites, forums, etc. have strict policies about offensive images, it wouldn't take much for an aggravated webmaster you've been stealing bandwidth from to shut you down completely with an unwanted "switcheroo".

Displaying an image or file that doesn't belong to could be a violation of copyright, making you open to litigation. The owner of the file could utilize DMCA law to have your site shut down and your information given for use in legal proceedings.

How can I test to see if my image can be hotlinked?

Use our URL hotlink checker below to check the hotlinking protection (such as an htaccess file) on your web site. Enter the complete URL below (ex: http://mysite.com/image.jpg) to see if your image can be loaded and hotlinked by an outside server.

Click to go to the Resource & Test Page

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Following text may not be an ultra professional experience but i've been using these techniques for 2 years and they are working great for me.

I've been running two dedicated servers and i've full control over them (my .htaccess file lines included in my httpd.conf file). If your hosting is shared and got some restrictions to use .htaccess files on your account, you should contact your hosting company first to enable them.
Notice: .htaccess files can only be used by Apache web servers and they will not work on a windows system.

Hotlink Protection Enabled .htaccess File Tutorial

-Create a new TXT file named *'sample.htaccess' and open it with your text editor (NotePad). *Windows users won't be able to create it as '.htaccess' so you have to rename 'sample.htaccess' to '.htaccess' after it's been uploaded to your server.

-Copy and paste the following lines to 'sample.htaccess' file:
-Change RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp|swf)$ http://www.yourdomain.com with your domain name.
-Upload 'sample.htaccess' file to your web server's root and rename it to '.htaccess'.

Read the following text to figure out how to customize your own .htaccess file.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ = Allow direct requests (ie. entering the url to an image in your browser). People can't publish your image files at their own web pages but they still can view them by entering their url in the browser window. These images can also be viewed (shared) by clicking on their urls in Instant Messenger windows.

[NC] = "No Case", meaning match the url regardless of being in upper or lower case letters.

[R] = Redirect

*(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp|swf) = Files to block

I used to redirect blocked files to a custom .jpe image file. If you prefer this option, you should use the following .htaccess file:
Upload a tiny jpg file with a text on it like "Hotlinking is not allowed!" and change it's extension to .jpe. This JPEG image is using the extension jpe instead of jpg to prevent blocking your own replacement image.

My .htaccess file:
This .htaccess file redirects people to my forum homepage who are trying to access the file types which are listed in the blocked files list.

First piece of lines got RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ line as i don't want people to be able to access those kind of files directly. (The protection for the image files doesn't have that line)

If you don't want a redirection for (mp3|mpeg|mpg|ram|rm|wma|wav|asx|wmv|avi|mov|zip|r ar|exe), you can use replace that line with the following display your Error Code 404 page:

Example: 404 - MsXLabs

.htaccess files effect the folder it's in and all of the subfolders.

If you want to exclude a subfolder from the hotlink protection, create another .htaccess file with the lines below and upload it to that directory:
IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE DELETE ANY EXTRA SPACES ADDED BY VBULLETIN. (jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp|swf) THERE SHOULD'T BE ANY SPACES BETWEEN THE EXTENSION TYPES.
Feel free to reply this thread if i made some mistakes :rolleyes:

This tutorial is written by NeutralizeR @ MsXLabs Organization

Hi I have just read through it, and this is a great Tutorial thank you! I have been looking for a guide such as this......

I hope to try it out when i have got some free time..

Again thank you. ahhh ur from Turkiye, cok sukur! (note for mods: it means thanks lol)

great article :up: thanks for sharing

thank you very much. It's very useful.

If I have two websites (two domains), and I want to post the link to the second one. How could I do it?

Thank you

You should add these extra two lines for each domain you want to allow:

Example:
This image is located in a hotlink protected directory:
------- > It must be broken here. (Hotlink protected with forum home redirection)

This line allows it to be viewed by an empty referrer:
Copy the url below, open a new browser window and paste it to address bar:
http://www.msxlabs.org/images/acting...sxlabs.com.gif

Once it's cached by your browser, you can view the image above in this post, too.

I used to redirect hotlink protected image files to a small gif file which was located in a non-hotlink protected directory:


Non-image files are always being redirected to my forum homepage.

Fantastic article, NeutralizeR. :)

I've been doing this for a while and it worked previously. Now for whatever reason images show up from my forum directory; but all other directories prevent hotlinks. For example:

Hotlink protection works in (root):
http://www.bac-clan.com/bac-redirect_1.jpg

Hotlink protection works in /test folder:
http://www.bac-clan.com/test/bac-redirect_1.jpg

Hotlink protection fails in /forum directory:
http://www.bac-clan.com/forum/bac-redirect_1.jpg

My .htaccess code is:

Any help is appreciated. :)

It seems you use vBSEO-Sitemap Generator or something similar... and there is an extra .htaccess file which doesn't include hotlink protection rules in the forum directory. Check it :)

Wow. I completely missed the forum .htaccess file I use for the custom URL rewrites. Thank you, NeutralizeR, again for the great article and for the help. :)

*The above forum image in my previous post no longer shows up. :)

I have a "private" directory where I use images out of there to post on other forums and I don't want that to be protected as I need to use this. I'm also installed the VBImage Hosting, so would it be safe to say I'd put this .htaccess file in my "Photo Post" root directory and not the site's root or the forum root? The whole idea of VB Image Host is so certain members can use it to post in places like Myspace.

Thanks, rg sends!

If you want to exclude a subfolder from the hotlink protection, create another .htaccess file with the lines below and upload it to that directory:

when i try this all i get is
Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@tvandsportstreams.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

There must be a misspelling or an extra space in your .htaccess file.
Please paste the contents of your .htaccess file here.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.tvandsportstreams.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.tvandsportstreams.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(mp3|mpeg|mpg|ram|rm|wma|wav|asx|wmv|avi|mov|z ip|rar|exe)$ http://www.tvandsportstreams.com/forum/ [F,NC]

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.tvandsportstreams.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.tvandsportstreams.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp|swf)$ http://www.tvandsportstreams.com/forum/ [F,NC]

had a better look and changed it to the following

So, is it working now?

This is mine (in httpd.conf):

if i was to use it in .conf file, should i then have it in apaceh.conf ??

Kinda noob in linux world :-)
And will it interfer with other sites hosted on same server if i do it in root ?
Not sure where i can do it or what to do if there are more than 1 site i will protect for this..

no httpd.conf and you have to be "root" to able to access that file

i have a bunch of "apache2" services runing when i do ps -A, but no httpd

and the httpd.conf is more or less empty while the apache2.conf hold all information about the server.... And yes it's as root i try..

Thanks, again, I'm not a coder, but I did what you said and it worked. Now one more question, say I want to allow www.domainx.com, www.domainy.com and www.domainz.com how would I do this?

On another note, does it matter if we put http://domain.com or http://www.domain.com or for that matter http://mparton.domain.com ?

Thanks again, rg sends!

Please check the first post, this's already been stated:
Yes it does.

So you can use this line instead:
For more information:
http://altlab.com/htaccess_tutorial.html

ok, call me an idiot, but can you show me the "whole" code for this scenario,

1. I need to let my domain, plus it's subdomains (example: http://www.domain.com, http://domain.com, http://extra.domain.com).

2. I also need the ability to pass through to other domains, so they can use images off my server. Example, http://www.domainguest1.com, http://www.domainguest2.com, and http://www.domainguest3.com

Again, my apologies, I just don't see what you're explaining. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks, rg sends!

Sorry, my mistake: it is post #5. I'm sleepy at the moment, hope i understood you correct:

And how do you deal with attachment.php?

This is what they are stealing from me. htaccess does not protect that

If guests can't view/download attachments, they won't be able to view/download your attachments on an external site. If you want to test it, just logout and click the link on the external site.

Guest are allowed to see attachments. But I found a solution that works perfect for me. Attachment.php displays on my site only.

How would i make it so that a certain file is allowed to be hotlinked, like affiliates for example how would i allow people to hotlink my link button? and then the rest of the .gifs wont be allowed to be hotlinked

is there something we can use for windows server i know this method don't work that way:confused:

I added this code to my existing htaccess code obviously replacing the urls with my own and now none of my images are appearing on the forum. No photopost, forum icons ect.. Do you know what might be causing this? Thanks

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.msxlabs.org/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.msxlabs.org$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(mp3|mpeg|mpg|ram|rm|wma|wav|asx|wmv|avi|mov|z ip|rar|exe)$ http://www.msxlabs.org/forum/ [R,NC]

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.msxlabs.org/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.msxlabs.org$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp|swf)$ http://www.msxlabs.org/forum/ [R,NC]

Use this one below:
Change http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/ to anything you want to redirect to...

(a page, a picture with .jpe extension)

Great tutorial. However my redirect isn't working. Hotlinking is being blocked but it doesn't redirect to our home page.

I use:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.animeonline.net/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.animeonline.net$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp|swf)$ http://www.animeonline.net/ [R,NC]

You can see a test page at www.myotherdomain.com/test.htm. There is a broken image that should redirect to AnimeOnline's home page. Correct?

Thank you.

Hi,

Image files are displayed as they are broken with hotlink protection enabled, they can't redirect to another page.

I use one line for any file type to use less server resource:
jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp|swf|mp3|mpeg|mpg|ram|rm|wma|w av|asx|wmv|avi|mov|zip|rar|exe

If they link a zip file pointing to your domain, it redirects to your homepage if somebody clicks on it. This method doesn't work for image files.

Interesting feedback and I thought u would be replying quickly based on your excellent support.

Take a look at my signature which I do notice redirects to my home page even though it's a hotlinked image. Whereas, http://www.myotherdomain.com/test.htm shows a broken image.

Where do you use this .htaccess file?

on www.animeonline.net or www.myotherdomain.com/test.htm?

For www.animeonline.net:
If you delete RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ line, the files will be accessible via empty referrers (like copying and pasting the urls directly to browser's address line or the IM windows)

Sorry, i'm too busy with my server problems at the moment :(

It was placed into the .htaccess file at animeonline.

Anyway, it was just a little thing, so don't worry about it. Cheers and good luck with ur own issues.

How does one KNOW this is occurring? Is there some server parameter you're monitoring, or a utility that alerts you to the fact others are hotlinking to your site?

How did you do this? We currently have a forum where we post images we use on our mainpage and we get the majority of our guests there. I need to be able to show it only on my site.

Can someone help me with this... I'm getting hammered with people using my attachment.php link...

if user use IDM when they click then it not rewrite

ex: http://abc.xom/folder/a.mp3

if use IDM then user can download it

Here is the code I have been using. It works without the www in front of the name but when I use the www then the hotlink protection does not work.

Does anyone have any advice?

Are you using your domain with our without www?

If you only want to use it with "www":

My domain is setup so that it works with and without the "www". How can I set it up to with with and without the "www"?