[hosting] blocking hotlinking and adding adverts

[RabbieBurns]

On my webspace I am hosting a load of (perfectly legal) MP3 mixes, of some local glasgow DJs.

 

These links have been spread via forums, facebook etc whatever and ive just checked the logs and im now getting about 1000 hits a month and most of them are direct hits, meaning they are just grabbing the files directly.

 

The webhost hasn't pulled me up yet but its only a matter of time, so was hoping to disable hotlinking to force folk to actually click on a link and view the page which I would put some subtle ads on whicn could hopefully pay for a bigger hosting package

 

Anyone got any experience with this?

[jamiess]

Rabbieburns,

 

One way to block hotlinking is to create a .htaccess file. This should sort it out.

 

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?domain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.domain.com/nohotlinking.html [R,L]

 

You need to change domain.com to your domain, the last domain will redirect the hot linkers to the domain of your choice.

 

As for the ads i would recommend Online Advertising Marketplace | BuySellAds.com

 

Jamie

[featured_spectre]

your webhost should be able to block hotlinking directly to your links, which would make them only available through your site. However the above method works well as well.