To accomplish this I've created a new directory under my site's default "images" directory and protected it from hotlinking with an Apache .htaccess file. For future reference here are the contents of the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?example.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ ../hotlink.gif [L]

The first line of the above code turns on the mod_rewrite engine in Apache. A requirement for the rewrite commands.

The second line matches any requests from the URL example.com [change this to suit your requirements]. The [NC] code means "No Case", meaning match the URL regardless of case.

The third line allows empty referrals.

Finally, the last line matches any files ending with the extension jpeg, jpg, gif, bmp, or png. This is then replaced by the hotlink.gif file [see below] residing in the above images directory.

If you need to allow more domains to hotlink to your images you can simply duplicate line two. See the example below:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?example.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?another-example.net/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?one-more-example.org/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ ../hotlink.gif [L]

Tags: code, images, unitedhosting, webdesign

Action php5-script /interpreters/php5-script
AddHandler php5-script .php

My development systems all run PHP 5 so the switch was a breeze. Hopefully from now on I'll be able to avoid stuff like this.

Also, I've been working on my Whird project over the weekend. I've now added feeds for individual tags and updated various features to improve usability. I've had to place some URL rewrites for the new feeds and I'm hoping that the various planets [Planet Ubuntu Users, Planet Ubuntu UK] don't get flooded — I apologise if they do :)

Tags: code, php, ubuntu, unitedhosting, whird

In the time that I've been with them they have grown enormously and have an obvious commitment to constantly improving their services. I can confidently expect no downtime during this upgrade. It's a nice feeling when you have complete confidence in your host.

Note: I wouldn't normally plug commercial services on my blog. However, respect where respect is due!

Tags: hosting, unitedhosting