Problem with deep-linking from my site...

[KoosHopeloos]

L.S.,

I have a movie on my site which I would like to 'protect' from deeplinking. All my webpages/movies are in separate folders, except my index page. So my question is the following: how do I let someone automatically go to the index-page when they try to get to a sub-webpage (with the movie) directly?

Is it possible to do a domain-check? So that they can only reach the moviepage (for example) when they acces the page from my index-page.

I.o.w. what is the best solution to this?

In a way making sure that my bandwidth is saved for the people that visit my site and not only for those that only wish to see the movie?

I hope you can help me,

KoosHopeloos :)

[DJ-Zep]

Does your server have cPanel X on it? If so, login and look for hotlink protection. Add whatever format your video is in (.MPEG, .AVI, .WMV, etc.) and you'll be set!

[KoosHopeloos]

@ DJ-Zep: thanks for the suggestion.

Nope, no cPanel X to be found :(. Any other(, more difficult) suggestions?

KoosHopeloos

[DJ-Zep]

Getting to .htaccess
Use an FTP client to access your site (I recommend CoreFTP). Go into your site's main directory (the main folder) and look for a file named ".htaccess". When you find it, open it in your main editor (notepad if you have no other program).

Download
DOWNLOAD IT TO YOUR COMPUTER WHERE YOU WILL REMEMBER IT. Do NOT edit this file. Backing up files is very important when dealing with important files.

Editing .htaccess
Add this to the bottom of the file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.YOURDOMAINHERE.com/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://YOURDOMAINHERE.com$      [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(wmv|avi|mpg|mpeg)$ - [F,NC]

(Replace "YOURDOMAINHERE" with your domain name)

Upload your edited file
After you add that, upload your new .htaccess to your site (you may be prompted in CoreFTP, just click "Overwrite").

***PLEASE*** be careful when editing this file. This file is the main configuration for your website. Do not delete, edit, or in any way change anything within this file unless directed to. Any questions, just reply.

[KoosHopeloos]

@ DJ-Zep: thanks for the help, havn't been able to test your suggestion yet, but I'm gonna try this weekend.

I do have a question though. It seems that not only my movie is hotlinked, also some of the image I have on my site. Can I add '|gif|jpg' to:

Originally Posted by DJ-Zep

[b][u][color="DarkOrchid"]
RewriteRule .*\.(wmv|avi|mpg|mpeg)$ - [F,NC]

Again, thanks for the help...

KoosHopeloos

[DJ-Zep]

Yup. To add them, use this code in .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.YOURDOMAINHERE.com/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://YOURDOMAINHERE.com$      [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(wmv|avi|mpg|mpeg|jpg|gif|png|gif)$ - [F,NC]

Tell me how things work out!

[KoosHopeloos]

There is one problem though: is this code also working on Sun-Cobalt servers, I thought it can only be used on Apache-severs?

I do have a .htaccess-file though, but it is not in the main root of the website-space.