Stop Direct Linking

Hate it when people direct link your images which slows your site down, and can even use up so much space it gets closed? Here's how to stop direct linkers. Note: If you are hosted on a free server, you probably won't need this as people won't be able to direct link anyway in most cases.

1. Copy this code and paste into a new page:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yoursite.com/.*$ [NC] RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ - [F]

2. Change yoursite.com to your actual URL, then save your file as .htaccess

If you want the direct linked images to appear as your own image (such as 'OMG you stole this image from http://yoursite.com!'), rather than a red cross, read on >
3. Repeat this tutorial, but instead of using the code in step one, use this one instead:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yoursite.com/.*$ [NC] RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.yoursite.com/image.gif [R,L]

4. Don't forget to change yoursite.com to your URL, and call the image you make for stealers/direct linkers 'image.gif', or change that bit of the code as well to fit your image name. If you're stuck for an image to use, I've made some you can use (copy into a graphics program and add your URL to the image if you like):