mod_rewrite and php to prevent hotlinking on freehosting site

[JonW88]

Hello all,

I am trying to fix a problem. I administer a number of free hosting sites. We allow users to upload multimedia files, but we don't allow hotlinking to these files from outside our network.

I am trying to use mod_rewrite rules and php to require an in-between page before end users can download the multimedia file....

If the referrer is either blank, or not from freesite.com, then I want the url:

http://www.freesite.com/username/mysong.mp3

to redirect to:

http://downloads.freesite.com/hotlink.php?file=/username/mysong.mp3

On this hotlink.php page, there will be some advertising, and a link "Click here to download mysong.mp3"

This way, we atleast have the chance to recoup the bandwidth cost for this mp3 (or other binary file).

Can anyone help? Point me to a how-to, or other forum posts from people with similar situations?

Thank you very much for any assistance.

Sincerely,
Jon Wade

 

[feherke]

Hi

If the referrer is either blank, or not from freesite.com, then I want the url: [gray](...)[/gray] to redirect to: [gray](...)[/gray]

There are overzealous security softwares which consider sending the HTTP referrer is a privacy issue and cuts them out from the HTTP headers. Also there are peoples not able to set their security softwares and sadly their are many. In such situation regular visitors will be denied.

I would do it something like this :

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^(https?://)?[^/]*\b[green][i]freesite\.com[/i][/green]\b [NC]
RewriteRule \.([green][i]png[/i][/green]|[green][i]jpg[/i][/green]|[green][i]gif[/i][/green])$ /hotlink.php?file=%{REQUEST_URI} [NC]

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/