Question ??

[PGZ]

I get alot of emails everyday of people that cant see my images and only get a white square with an red x in the square while on my site.

Is there something I can do on my side that will fix this for people or do they have to do something at their end with the computer they are on ??

If it was just 1 or 2 people I would blow it off but I get at least 2-3 emails a day about it.

[myspaceprodesigns]

i guess it depends on why you're displaying the images with javascript.

i tend to use javascript as little as possible for this reason and never use it for essential things (like menus or primary content). where i do use javascript, i make sure i use the <noscript> tag so people know that they need to enable javascript in their browser or to show a relevant alternative.

[PGZ]

Well I guess I was wrong cause if I disable my javascript I see them just fine...I dont know what it is. Also I edited my initial post.

[myspaceprodesigns]

Well I guess I was wrong cause if I disable my javascript I see them just fine...I dont know what it is. Also I edited my initial post.

Do you have a link the page that's doing this? I'll try as well and see if I can help out. It could always be a browser bug if it's not javascript.

[mcfox]

If you shoot me a PM with your site, I'll have a look see if I can spot anything.

[Kasami2k4]

Eh? Whats the link?

[xo.Saz.xo]

Once i did something to my .htacess file by accident, and all my images showed up like that for everyone except me LOL. Whats your link I'll see if they show up for me or not.

[JCs]

Well I guess I was wrong cause if I disable my javascript I see them just fine...I dont know what it is. Also I edited my initial post.

I have javascript disabled and can see them fine but enabled i just see red kisses everywhere which from you is very nice ROFL :winkiss:

[BGray]

yeah, I've had this problem on another site previously. JS issue.

[carlee]

Have you disabled hotlinking / direct linking on your site?

[PGZ]

Have you disabled hotlinking / direct linking on your site?

Yes its disabled..

[carlee]

Yes its disabled..
That might be your problem. I disabled hotlinking on one of my sites and got loads of emails from people, saying that my images were showing...but being replaced with "YOU :censored: THEIF! STOP DIRECT LINKING FROM [site's URL]!", lol.

It's got something to do with HTTP_REFERER being disabled in some firewalls (and some browsers apparently...), or something like that. :s My head's not on right today, so I can't explain it. :no:

Does your hotlink protection have to be on? 'Cause I'd suggest enabling it again if you can, otherwise you'll have to explain to people how to change some setting in their firewall. =\

[PGZ]

I dont have a choice but to turn it off so people cant hotlink. If I enable it again the server will die cause that many people try to do it.

[JCs]

Another thing it may be is you htaccess file.

Not saying it is but with mine there was something wrong with it and 40% of people couldn't get into my site or see the images so in the end i just deleted it.

[Thefairies]

I have javascript disabled and can see them fine but enabled i just see red kisses everywhere which from you is very nice

Hey...... What's up with you and kisses? You must really need some LOL......

[JCs]

Hey...... What's up with you and kisses? You must really need some LOL......

ROFL Shhhhhhhh

[myspaceprodesigns]

I've tried in IE6, IE7, Firefox, and Opera with and without js and can see everything fine

[PGZ]

I've tried in IE6, IE7, Firefox, and Opera with and without js and can see everything fine

Its gotta be the firewall they are using then but it just seems like alot for it to be a firewall.

I get emails daily about it.

[myspaceprodesigns]

Well, here's something odd that happened to me once that might help you.

I once had a problem with certain versions of IE6 not putting my paths together by combining a variable with a query from a database. This happened on my glitter text generator as well as on an an image uploader which I had built. This was really odd because server-side processing shouldn't by affected by the browser, but in this case it was.

I haven't seen this bug documented anywhere but I know of one other site that had the same problem with certain versions of IE6. Both of us fixed it by inserting full paths into the database and using parse_url on the select query to only use the file path and filename to speed up load times when these items were displayed.

I don't know how you're pulling data or building paths, but I have to wonder if maybe you're experiencing a similar problem? Just something to think about I guess.

[carlee]

I dont have a choice but to turn it off so people cant hotlink. If I enable it again the server will die cause that many people try to do it.
Would you be able to allow it to show images that someone types directly into the address bar? I just grabbed an image off your site (that no right click JavaScript doesn't protect your images :P) and entered the URL into the address bar and got a Forbidden Error.

The problem those visitors are having is to do with the firewall disabling HTTP_REFERER, which is how your hotlinking protection works; it checks to see if HTTP_REFERER = yourdomain.com, if it is, display the image, if it's not, throw up a Forbidden Error.

[PGZ]

I know the no right click doesnt work that Great but just the pop-up that comes up keeps most people away from coping them. As far as if some types the link in where the image is hosted on my server it wont work if they do that.

Im kinda confused on your last paragraph though.

[WarBud]

I've had problems with random images from my own site and others not showing up and just displaying the red "x" in IE. It was very inconsistent on which images did not display. I install IE-SPYAD on my machines which adds thousands of sites to the restricted list. Some of them were displaying ads on my site. This gave my site a mixed security level. I ended up removing all the sites in my restricted list since it blocked access to a lot of my affiliate accounts and I was tired of removing them one by one. The image problem went away as well. I have no idea why or if it was just coincidental.

[carlee]

I know the no right click doesnt work that Great but just the pop-up that comes up keeps most people away from coping them. As far as if some types the link in where the image is hosted on my server it wont work if they do that.

Im kinda confused on your last paragraph though.
I typed my last post at almost 2am, lol. :P So I'm not surprised it confused you. :s

When you visit a site, you have a HTTP_REFERER, which has the URL of the referrer. Some people have a browser or firewall which disables this, so HTTP_REFERER for these people will be blank.
When people disable hotlinking on their site, they have it set so
"if HTTP_REFERER doesn't contain my domain, don't load up the image"
if someone's HTTP_REFERER is blank, then it's not containing your domain, so it won't show the images, even if the visitor is on your site.

The downside to this is if someone whose HTTP_REFERER is being wiped, goes to a site that's direct linking from you, your images will show up on that site...

If you do want to allow those with no HTTP_REFERER to see your images, then you can use this code in your .htaccess instead of the one you're currently using:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain.com.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png)$ - [F]
(replace yourdomain.com with your domain :P)

[niktesla]

I'm not an expert in this particular field, but if you block hotlinking wont your graphics, comments, and layouts not be visible on myspace.com, hi5.com, friendster.com or many of the other places you do want it to show. Do you have to enter all the blogs and social networking domains that you do want to allow?

If the issue is images being taken from the site. Another layer of protection is placing a div on top of your image with spacer.gif in it. It's not 100% protected, but it's a pain in the *ss to steal your images.

Sample:
<div style="z-index: 1; height: 300px; width: 400px; position: relative;">
<img src="images/actual_image.gif" alt="Image Name" height="300" width="400">
<div style="z-index: 2; height: 300px; width: 400px; position: absolute; top: 0pt; left: 0pt;">
<a href="http://link.to.get.image.code" title="Image Title"><img src="images/dummy.gif" alt="Actual Image Name" height="300" width="400"></a>
</div>
</div>

This code is dynamically created on my site using php+mysql.

Live Sample: Right Click even with JS disabled or Drag & Drop don't work on these images (http://www.xoospace.com/index.php?go=graphics&q=congratulations+happy+graduation+comments)

[PGZ]

I typed my last post at almost 2am, lol. :P So I'm not surprised it confused you. :s

When you visit a site, you have a HTTP_REFERER, which has the URL of the referrer. Some people have a browser or firewall which disables this, so HTTP_REFERER for these people will be blank.
When people disable hotlinking on their site, they have it set so
"if HTTP_REFERER doesn't contain my domain, don't load up the image"
if someone's HTTP_REFERER is blank, then it's not containing your domain, so it won't show the images, even if the visitor is on your site.

The downside to this is if someone whose HTTP_REFERER is being wiped, goes to a site that's direct linking from you, your images will show up on that site...

If you do want to allow those with no HTTP_REFERER to see your images, then you can use this code in your .htaccess instead of the one you're currently using:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain.com.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png)$ - [F]
(replace yourdomain.com with your domain :P)

So what your saying is I can keep it disabled and change the .htaccess code from what it is to this above and it will help those that cant see my images while on my site plus I will still have my hotlinking disabled ?

[PGZ]

So what your saying is I can keep it disabled and change the .htaccess code from what it is to this above and it will help those that cant see my images while on my site plus I will still have my hotlinking disabled ?

????? and ummmm answer please....LOL

[carlee]

So what your saying is I can keep it disabled and change the .htaccess code from what it is to this above and it will help those that cant see my images while on my site plus I will still have my hotlinking disabled ?
That's correct. x)

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?yourdomain.com.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
# ^ the above line is the only difference and is the line that will allow those having problems to see your images
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png)$ - [F]

[PGZ]

It looks as though its already that way Carlee......Take a look..

# -FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName www.commentyou.com
AuthUserFile /home/comment/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/comment/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp








RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://images.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://images.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.images.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.images.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ - [F,NC]

[carlee]

It looks as though its already that way Carlee......Take a look..

# -FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName www.commentyou.com
AuthUserFile /home/comment/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/comment/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp








RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://images.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://images.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.images.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.images.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ - [F,NC]



Nope, it's not. You need to add one new line (the (if HTTP_REFERER = "") line): RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$

Just replace all of your code with this:
# -FrontPage-

IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*

<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName www.commentyou.com
AuthUserFile /home/comment/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/comment/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp








RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://images.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://images.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.images.commentyou.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.images.commentyou.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ - [F,NC]

[PGZ]

I will give this a try when I get home tonight Carlee. I truly appreciate your help on this.....Hope this works....LOL

Green coming your way..

[PGZ]

OK its in place carlee I guess I will wait and see if I still get emails or not.....Thanks I gace ya some Green.

[carlee]

Thanks for the green! :biggrin:
Could you email [the people who emailed you] back and ask if the images on your site is working for them? 'cause it might be quicker that way, is all. :) (Depends on how many emails a day you got about the issue, though. >.<)