stop image bots *help*
 

hey guys, i have messed with .htaccess a bit but i am not having any luck with one particular problem that is becoming quite a drag on my bw.

i am allowing webmasters to hotlink my guestcam (http://www.ambersamateurhardcore.com/webcam/snotrocket.jpg) as part of my partnership program, so i want to allow hotlinkers.

but

i am getting millions of "cam bot" grabs daily. people are setting up bots on my guestcam image in hopes to grab every possible free image that they can. this shows up as a "HEAD" in my access file instead of a "GET". how can i block bots but still allow hotlinkers?

a couple of people have told me it's a simple matter of three lines of code yet nobody can actually scrounge the code up for me. i use a linux set up, if anyone can help me out i would be 4ever in your debt. http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif

Although i've never actually done it (i suspect i will be soon) there is a apache module called mod_rewrite

http://webmasterfolder.com/learningf...andwidth.phtml

has samples and such, hope it helps.

btw, thats one hot bod http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif

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Come home with me or I'll dispatch my legions of flying monkeys!

.htaccess ability is from mod_rewrite

Try to block or allow some host based on REMOTE_ADDR, ie. RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^<some ip or ip range>*. You can also use REMOTE_HOST if you work with servers only.

Or you can do this:
Instead of hotlinking, let them link to a php script which modifies HTTP header and .htaccess must be set up to accept only requests with that header. This can work 100% if done properly.

it could be dangerous, but you could test it for a day put this in either the httpd.conf / apache.conf file or in a .htaccess for that directory

[Limit HEAD]
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
[/Limit]

that should deny HEAD request however it is unknown what the result might be. only one way to find out http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif

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Come home with me or I'll dispatch my legions of flying monkeys!

[This message has been edited by afrocreep (edited 08-17-2001).]

[This message has been edited by afrocreep (edited 08-17-2001).]

thanks for the help peoples. http://bbs.gofuckyourself.com/board/smile.gif

we have been trying stuff all day and the only thing we have accomplished is crashing my server.

i will keep plugging away at it, hehehehe.