hotlinking video media from behind .htaccess... how, and how to stop?
 

ok, gotta bounce this one off the GFY collective; last night my bandwidth usage on a certain paysite went through the roof, and continued through much of the night... *much* higher than normal, w/ no obvious reason why. my security script (pwsentry) which has been reliable for years now reported no problems or shared accounts, but something must be up as my customers couldn't have all gotten hooked up w/ T3's at once.

is it possible that someone is "hotlinking" to my media through .htaccess somehow and bleeding off my bandwidth wholesale? if so, what is the method and any way to combat..?

You should check your stats/logs and see what was using up the bandwidth.

You should be asking the techs at your hosting company these questions and they should be tracking down the leaks for you.

That's what you pay them for.

:2 cents:

This is an easy fix by securing your video, connecting it to your htaccess file using an api and then flipping the tables on these guys by sucking the members out of their site.

Go to: http://www.playadrm.com and sign up for an account. I will authorize it, show you how to use the system, set you up and give you the rest of June and all of JULY for FREE and let you see what I am talking about.

:-) Tucker