[fixed]Possible Page Display Problems 09/06/03

On edit: will change mine immediately.

Thanks!

Most people don't realize what it does. When it all adds up I will be paying a few hundred dollars for bandwith that is used by other sites.

Glad you guys fixed whatever went wrong. I've been out, came back, looked at screen, and it's normal again!

What is a hotlink, by the way?

A hotlink calls up an image from an off-site host, in this example. Avatars are hosted here, but the images displayed in posts are hosted elsewhere. When an image appears in reply, what really is there is a link to that image, wherever it is hosted, not the image itself. Hotlinking an avatar from here to a different website causes this website to transmit that avatar to the other website every time the page containing it is accessed by the members or viewers of that website.

Holy mackerel, Timber! I had no idea. Should we be more sparing about posting any images?

It depens on the site you get the image froma nd if they allow you to hotlink.

A2K forbids images *hosted on A2K* from being hotlinked elsewhere.

Many other sites have similar policies and you need to check with them. The most obvious indicator of such a policy is when they simply blobk hotlinks (e.g. tripod, geocities).

Some sites intentionally allow it. On others it might even be encouraged.

It all depends on how they run their site.

Just want to let you know... I still see the same type of images- the "replaced by hotlink protectiopn" ones. It only happens on a few images, which is somewhat weird. I figured if you did this same thing using CPanel, the images would still appear on THIS web site, but OTHER they will not.

I still see the same type of images, too.



ISP: hmm, not sure, maybe KDDI, but I don't remember seeing this type of thing on other pages which block hotlinking
No software firewall running (using W2K & IE6SP1)
Not connecting through a proxy server
Refreshing the home page doesn't make it go away, but clicking the forums page does. (If I go directly to the /forums/ url after clearing cache, I don't get teh same problem. It appears it only shows up if I go to 'www.able2know.com', and only if I go there before going anywhere else on the site)
I've never remembered to post this coz I only see it when my cache is empty.

I can clear cache & check it out on my home PC tonight, & I'll let you know if it looks the same from there.

Let me know if you need any further info..

cpanel's hotlink protection method is very very flawed. This type of problem is common with their code.

When did this start monger?

I get this when I log in from work. I empty the cache there faithfully, and go in through yahoo search. I invariably get the 'license plate' thing then. It also happens after I do a full 'cookie-clean-up' on my home puter.

I need someone who is seeing this error to test this for me:

Try able2know.com

Then try able2know.com/

Once without the slash and once with it. Please clear cache before trying it.

i'll give it a try in a minute
(of course i'm on dialup at home, so nothing is really just a minute)

It's fixed (or at least should be) so it's just confirmation at this point.

Can those who had this problem confirm that their bookmark or method to get to the home page did not contain the trailing slash?

I think that was it.

Well it happened not only on the home page, but also on: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=36.

It works perfect now and looks good

My bookmark didn't have the slash.

It looks fine here now.
If I get a chance I'll try it at work tomorrow as well.

(i had to take a give-dog-eardrops-break. always longer than i anticipate)

I spoke too soon.
I cleaned the cache again, and then went to yahoosearch.
typed in able2know - several of the links - when they bring me to the homepage bring back the 'hotlink protected license plate'

one of the links was http://66.98.158.38/~a2kname/privacy.php#login

i'm going to go back out and try another.

Ditto.

Those links will display that, Able2Know is not supposed to be accessed by IP and several things will not work. I'm looking for a way to get rid of the IP links from Yahoo's brand new engine. Their spiders need to be potty-trained.

YahooSearch generally doesn't do that great a job - and it gives some particularly odd (to me) results for able2know, but that's what the office default is. The links I do get from there bring me to 'hotlink protection' consistently. I don't have the same effect with links from Google.

Interestingly (?) - one of the top 10 links at YahooSearch for Able2Know takes you to GadgetAddict's site.