Blocking a Bandwidth Thief

**richardevanslee** · 09-27-2005, 02:48 PM

These folks have grabbed a Gig and half from me this month. I thought I'd blocked them months ago but they've managed to return.

host18.bayshoresoftware.com

I did a whois and blocked the listed IP for bayshoresoftware.com some time back but that has stopped working.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Richard

**Ron** · 09-27-2005, 02:52 PM

The IP addy should be in your Apache logs, shouldn't it?

**Vin DSL** · 09-27-2005, 03:03 PM

Try putting this in your .htaccess file...

Code:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (bayshoresoftware.com) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) %{HTTP_REFERER} [R=301,L]

**Gwaihir** · 09-27-2005, 06:45 PM

If it's a bandwith thievery, then it isn't that specific host using your bandwith, is it? Rather, they'd be pointing their clients to files / images on your site - directly, not by linking in the fair and square way. Thus, blocking that hosts IP won't do you any good, you indeed need to block those referred by it, as Vin points out.

**Vin DSL** · 09-27-2005, 09:22 PM

OMG! Banner day! We agree on something...

**Gwaihir** · 09-28-2005, 06:03 AM

Originally Posted by Vin DSL

OMG! Banner day! We agree on something...

We seem to agree more often than not these days, Vin. Be carefull not to ware out the banner.

**richardevanslee** · 09-28-2005, 06:23 AM

Originally Posted by Ron

The IP addy should be in your Apache logs, shouldn't it?

I couldn't find 'bayshore' anywhere in the logs. Wasn't sure what else to do looking at a 17 Meg text file is a bit daunting.

Thanks,
Richard

**richardevanslee** · 09-28-2005, 06:24 AM

Originally Posted by Vin DSL

Try putting this in your .htaccess file...

Code:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (bayshoresoftware.com) [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) %{HTTP_REFERER} [R=301,L]

Once again, many thanks,
Richard

**richardevanslee** · 09-28-2005, 06:28 AM

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

If it's a bandwith thievery, then it isn't that specific host using your bandwith, is it? Rather, they'd be pointing their clients to files / images on your site - directly, not by linking in the fair and square way.

I've been having lots of trouble with people hitting a few of my sites to build scraper sites.

Blocking theplanet.com's IP worked oddly enough.

I'm certainly grateful for Vin's advice.

Richard

**richardevanslee** · 09-28-2005, 02:23 PM

One rather odd way to drain a site a bit is to send it 4,638,116 searches for "Char-Broil."

**tinnel** · 09-30-2005, 07:46 AM

Great info... you learn something new every day. I've been having folks link directly to images on my site, sucking up bandwidth. I don't care if they save the images on their sites, I just don't want them wasting my bandwidth... using this info, I did a bit of Googling and came up with the following to block all direct linking to images on my site. I tested using one of the handy referrer URLs in my logs and it seems to work. Any comments on how to make it better?

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.(gif|jpe?g|png)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://([-a-z0-9]+\.)?mysite\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) %{HTTP_REFERER} [R=301,L]

**Spathiphyllum** · 09-30-2005, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by tinnel

Any comments on how to make it better?

I don't know about better, but here's another way to confirm that they have their referer enabled. If it isn't, then send them to a warning page.

Code:

# A different version to limit image hotlinking
# Check for referer; send client to warning page if no referer
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER}  ^$
RewriteRule ^.*$  /home/account/public/path/to/needreferer.html	[L]

# Regex the received referer; if no match, redirect request for images to home
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://([-a-z0-9]+\.)?mysite\.com/	[NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(bmp|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|png)$ http://www.mysite.com/	[NC,R,L]

And now the warning page at needreferer.html:

Code:

<html>
<head>
<title>www.mysite.com - Please enable referer<title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Please enable your browser's referer...</p>
</body>
</html>

Try it out. If it works better, let us know. Hope this helps.

**Vin DSL** · 09-30-2005, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by tinnel

Great info... Any comments on how to make it better?

There a zillion ways to block grifters. 'Better' depends on YOUR situation.

In MY situation, I want some pics to be blocked from thieves, but other pics and graphics are used in my postings, and so forth, here and elsewhere, so I can't use a 'nuclear option'...

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