Slightly technical question regarding mod_rewrite hotlink protection
 

Hi, i'm wondering if you guys are using mod_rewrite to hotlink protect your servers or if you noticed that it causes more problems than it is worth? I recently started using it and i've read that it can cause certain browsers issues/etc.

Does anyone have any real world input on this?

Thanks,
BMF

The amount of problems it causes depends on what rules you use. The deal is that browsers aren't guaranteed to provide referrers so some rulesets will not let those browsers see your images. In real life, your audience has browsers that work fine with normal hotlink rules.

Make sure your rules are ok though.. some people have broken rules.

You mean .htaccess hotlink protection? That's not what Mod Rewrite is

mod_rewrite is used for regular image hotlink protection.


I have mine set up to allow from my own domains + browsers that doesn't send a referer and I don't have any problems.

Actually, mod_rewrite usually is used for .htaccess hotlink protection. You plop a bunch of mod_rewrite rules in your .htaccess file typically. Like this: http://faq.ath.cx/index.php?query=a126.html

Below is my .htaccess

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?pornacle\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png|mpeg|wmv|mpg)$ - [F]

not sure if that looks ok? anyone have any pointers?

Thanks