Hot Linking - something we all should know - Page 2

Ionic · 23rd October 2003, 02:02

May I return to one of my earlier questions.

How do we clean out the old rubbish from the server, such as redundant Avatars or things that we forget the URL link for.
I assume there is a limit to space available. Or will things just get the chop on an age of file basis??

/I

Firefox · 23rd October 2003, 02:11

We don't have any (Legal) access to the server other than to store images. So just leave them. If you are not using them, you are only taking up storage space, not bandwidth. Storage space is easier for him to control than bandwidth.

Ionic · 23rd October 2003, 02:17

ok, won't worry then.

I'm sure if it becomes an issue, you'll negotiate an appropriate system of removal. It is the stuff that never gets accessed for a year that could be chopped first.

/I

Firefox · 23rd October 2003, 12:53

Yes, he can either have a program which deleted files which haven't been requested in a while or he can delete or when his storage is getting full, or not at all. It's all very easily controllable for him, and he has plenty of advance warning.

The bandwith issue is slightly different. If for example some people used his picture storage area to hot link images on an adult page and he didn't check for a few days, then some of those adult sites can get 100,000's or even millions of hits a day. He may find that the bandwith he has paid for a month is used up in a few days. Then he gets an email from his provider telling him he must pay another $50 or whatever for excessive usage or they will cut off his account for the rest of the month or even terminate his account. And all because he was doing us a favour.

That's an extreme example, but it can happen, so we must be good boys and girls

Bubba136 · 23rd October 2003, 16:06

Isn't there a program that can prevent "hot linking"? Gosh only knows, there's programs for everything else. (Now, with over 1000 members here, I bet it is hard to keep up with).

jo · 23rd October 2003, 19:50

You don't need a program to prevent hot-linking. It is a simple setting that can be changed by the owner of the server containing the images themselves. It is a one line instruction in the .htaccess file if you are using the Apache web server software. Similar settings exist in most other server products too. You can set up the server so that only certain users can access it, or in this case, so that only referals from one site, such as hhplace.org for example, will allow access.

Bubba136 · 24th October 2003, 14:56

Sounds simple enough. I assume there's a down side otherwise I'm sure it would already be being used.

jo · 25th October 2003, 01:24

The downside is just a tiny fraction of a second extra processing time at the server end.

And, the opening post in the other thread http://www.hhplace.org/hhboard/viewtopic.php?t=2213 states that this setting will be switched on from Monday, so denying access to images stored there unless the request is from a forum thread at hhplace.org only.

Bubba136 · 25th October 2003, 02:30

Does that mean that I can't recall the pictures I've uploaded to hhplace except through this site?

PJ · 25th October 2003, 03:50

How would everyone like a practical example to demonstrate the problem of bandwidth?

Today I tried to access a site that has exceeded it's authorized bandwidth. First I received the following message:

The daily bandwidth limit for this customer has been exceeded. Try again after midnight, EST.
Click here for more information.

Then when I clicked on here, I was directed to the following page http://www.brinkster.com/BandwidthLimitReached.asp

A nice practical example.