So yeah...I have the hotlink protection set up with a custom image to replace any image linked from an unauthorized site. I have had it set up that way for a long time. I have noticed in the past that the replacement image didn't show up when I checked on unauthorized links. I just got the standard little red X. I didn't really care that much so I just forgot about it.
I was trying to track specific traffic through my site last night and the recent visitors link wasn't being cooperative so I downloaded the full log file for the first time in years. To my surprise I was getting up to 10 requests per second almost continuously from single IPs for my replacement image used in the hotlink protection. My log file was so flooded with these requests it had become completely useless without loading it into a DB program and filtering them out.
So my next step was to try to open a TCH help ticket and that was when I ran into the next problem. Now just about the number one error in customer support is the support desk guy who hears a single keyword, goes on autopilot and ignores everything else the customer says. Yeah...sure 99.999 percent of the people who request support on hotlinks just want to know how to set it up so it is pretty easy to just shut your brain off and go onto automatic.
Unfortunately that often causes serious problems for users like myself who only contact customer support when the problem is non-standard. So it really astonished me when I discovered that, not only was TCH making this mistake, but they had actually installed a program that automatically makes this mistake for them. When I tried to open a help ticket asking if perhaps someone might know something to stop the steady stream of hits from the same IP number on my hotlink redirect image, my request was rejected automatically and I was sent to a standard help page telling me how to set up hot link protection.
Sorry...I already know how to set up hot link protection. What I want to know is why that hotlink protection seems to be malfunctioning. But all I get is an automated customer service error generation system that automatically misinterprets my request and sends me to a totally useless page that, according to the nifty rating system at the bottom, the majority of visitors have found as useless as I found it.
So I gave up and went to bed, got a good night's sleep and got up this morning to take another shot at the problem. That helped. It didn't take me long to figure out what was happening. The way Cpanel sets it up, any link to an image from an unauthorized site is redirected to another image. However, when that second image is requested in place of the first, the server looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
looks at the referrer, decides it is invalid, and redirects to another image.
I think you get the point...and this happens up to 600 times per minute per IP requesting the image. So I fixed it by redirecting to an image in one of the directories that I have excluded from hotlink protection. You might think about adding that information to your automatic customer service error generation system
Lee
