Hotlinkers Stealing Bandwidth

[ramius]

Yes, i did all the things you mentioned but is not working. If you estrapolate from the embedded object code the exact name of the flv file (i.e. http://www.youdomain.com/flvvideo/646510561616521.flv) and you paste it in the browser's url you still be able to download the file! :(
Anyway now i check that article...

[grynmoors]

If it's a problem, you can always rename the flv in admin panel. That will screw up the code on the thief's page.

If you're talking about downloading the file versus preventing hotlinking, that's not the same thing. Yes, they can download the flv just by getting the URL when they "view source". Anything is copy-able from the internet. If you don't want something copied, then don't put it on the internet to begin with. There is always Screen Shots, Screen recording software, access to direct URL's, Temp folders and all kinds of things. If someone wants it bad enough, they WILL get it.

What this thread is concerned with is HOTLINKING, which uses YOUR bandwidth, that YOU have to pay for and the hotlinker doesn't (not about downloading your files).

To make a directory so that nothing can be downloaded from it, password protect the directory. Consult with your webhost about password protection for directories. I don't know how passwording a directory will affect vShare script when people go to watch a video on your site. My guess is that it will crash the script.

[grynmoors]

ramius, did you find anything? I used the player setup wizard with this .htaccess in my flvideo folder and I was still able to view the video. Not sure why this wouldn't be working.....

UPDATE: The code needs to be in the .htaccess in the root directory (not the flvideo directory). I added this bit of code to the main .htaccess AND the logo was displayed instead!!!! Yay!!!! To get the image to be displayed, I just needed to remove the first "slash" from infront of "templates". Here's my successful code:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?YOURDOMAIN.COM(/)?.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(flv|swf|png|bmp|js|css|jpg|jpe?g|gif)$ templates/images/logo.jpg [L,NC]

[worldsex]

Hi,
it is much simpler to just login it cpanel and enable your hotlink protection which will automaticaly stop any clicks counting on othersites and make them all count as clicks on yours also bandwidth stops being stolen much much easier :D

[grynmoors]

I tried doing that, but there's some forums where I like to have an image in my sig and for each one, I have to go in and "allow" that URL to access my sig image (I do a lot of gaming so subscribe to a lot of forums). This was becoming horribly inconvenient...the .htaccess solution here was a much better solution for me.

[RAMMSTEIN]

There is a tool on the net that make your life easy.

http://www.htaccesstools.com/hotlink-protection/

But we can't disallow the blank refers because the vshare player design.

and the reason is that the player begins with.

so.addVariable("file","http://mysite.com/flvideo/1210779023428305516.flv");

it must be like this

<script type="text/javascript">

	so.addVariable('file',"1210779023428305516.flv"); :D 

</script>

if someone can acheive that then can disallow blank refers. :idea:

[grynmoors]

How about this one that bizhat uses and recommends in the wiki? http://docs.buyscripts.in/Vshare_flv_hotlink_protection

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yoursite.com(/)?.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*.(jpg|flv)$ - [NC,F]

From htaccess tools:

Some surfers uses a personal firewall or antivirus program, that deletes the page referer information sent by the web browser. Hotlink protection is based on this information. So if you choose not to allow blank referers, you will block these surfers. You will also prevent people from directly accessing an image by typing in the URL in their browser.

With this in mind, why would you want to disallow blank referrers? Unless it's to prevent people from directly accessing an image (or video) by directly typing in the URL in their browser (and thus downloading it).

If that is the case, one measure you can take is to add a subtitle to uploaded videos so that no matter what, the URL of your site will be on the video. Search the forums for "hardcoded watermark" or something along those lines or check my site webgeek-design.com and look in the FREEBIES section.

[tugacari]

Hi all,

I want to be able to prevent hotlinks, but still want to allow embed videos to be streamed from my flvplayer on other sites.

Any tips ?

Regards

[grynmoors]

This thread offers several things to use in .htaccess, of which none affect embedding as far as I know. Try the one listed above your post (the one recommended by vshare wiki---see link).

This is what I have in my flvideo folder:

(.htaccess)

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?myvsharesite\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://.*$
RewriteRule \.(flv)$ /templates/images/logo.jpe [L]

As far as I know, (I tested it on another domain) I can still embed videos, but direct linking is disabled. What they see is my logo instead (I created a copy of my logo.jpg as logo.jpe since I also have hotlinking of images disabled).

I have this in the vshare root:

(.htaccess)

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?myvsharesite\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://.*$
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /templates/images/logo.jpe [L]

To allow streaming from other sites, you add the domain to the list

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?vsharesite1\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?vsharesite2\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?vsharesite3\.com [NC]

[jayscot]

Decided to work on this again today. I finally saw some results in that I saw videos blocked. But I never did see a replacement movie or image in place.
I am on a Mac but with Safari I get the original request blocked and a continuous attempt at downloading is indicated. Bringing up the browser error window and clicking on the video it is attempting to get will show the LeachBanner.jpg has been sent instead of the requested movie. OK, it almost is perfect.

However...

If I run Firefox and try the same link I get to watch the movies as if nothing is blocked! What's up?

I am testing on a page on another site that has a flash player coded onto the page and it is getting the movie name from an xml file which has several choices. The choices are hard coded to connect to my vshare site and get the movies from the flvideo directory.

I will try to find a PC tomorrow and test the same links on it.

Any ideas?