PHP script for info on remote leeching sites?

chokra

I have looked high and low for this info....but just could not find a solution. My question is, how do get to know which sites are referencing the images from my server. Example: Suppose an image called kamasutra.jpg stored on my server is being remotely pulled out by another person through html on their site, is there a php script that will give me the information of those people/sites/browsers doing so? Of course the php script will run on my server...but I was thinking, is it possible that every time kamasutra.jpg is referenced, the script would run and do a certain task? Obviously I have no control over the html on the leeching server, so I do not have the luxury of variables like 'kamasutra.jpg?page=..." etc

The code on the leeching server would be a simple

Thanks much for any leads!

Rahul

WRa

Yes, there is a quite simple way. I recommend you to create one table, where you will store list of images and they will be identified by ids (1, 2, 3, 4 ...). Create one simple script which will read the table and pass the requested image (so dont use src="images/kamasutra.jpg" but "getimage.php?id=125" or so). The script can read referrer and if it is not your site it can pass some fake image.

chokra

Thanks for your response WRa, but I have a followup question.

You say, "The script can read referrer.."

How do I make it read the referer...what is the code for it?

Also you say, "...and if it is not your site it can pass some fake image."

Would you please elaborate on that?

Thanks a ton!

Regards, Rahul

WRa

Sure 😉 You can ger referer by using $referer = getenv("HTTP_REFERER"); if the referrer is like "http://yoursite.com/..." you passthru the real image. You can create a fake image with content "Hate leechers" or something like that and yo can passthru this image if the referrer is other than your site.
[edit]And you can log those referrers of course...[/edit]

chokra

Sounds good WRa...but... getenv("HTTP_REFERER") works for a php page doesn't it? But this is not a php page, but an image.

I mean....on what page do I put the code
$referer = getenv("HTTP_REFERER");

Can you pleeeeeeeeease give me the whole code?

Thanks much.

Rahul

WRa

So, from the beggining. You have an image gallery or something like that on your page. Instead of direct linking to image (<img src="images/kamasutra.jpg">)
you may link to some php script (<img src="getimage.php?id=125">). Complete list of files is in the mysql table, or external file. The list contains
url (absolute or relative) to an image and an unique id. So id 125 links to images/kamasutra.jpg. Maybe you should set the directory "images" not accessible
direct http or so. I never tested it but logicaly it should work. The trick is, that your images are not directly accessible, but they are accessible
through an php script which can control displaying of them. This code may be not errorfree but can give you an idea what I think about.

<?
	header ("Content-type: image/jpg");
  $referer = getenv("HTTP_REFERER");

  if ($pos ($referer, "http://mysite.com/") === false)
  {
  	passthru ("images/fake.jpg");
  	mysql_query ("INSERT INTO ref_data VALUES ('$referer')");
  }
  else
  {
  	$file = mysql_query ("SELECT * FROM images WHERE id = $id");
  	$file = mysql_result ($file, 0, "name");
  	passthru ($file);
  }
?>

chokra

Nice WRa!!!...that's neat...I hope I get to use it some day.
And thanks for taking the time to write out the code!

But WRa, your solution would work if the image is being displayed on a page on my server. But suppose the image is JUST SITTING on the server then will your solution still work?

I mean, suppose I have a gallery of images kamasutra1.jpg, kamasutra2.jpg, kamasutra3.jpg and so on in the root directory.
And suppose I am NOT using those images on any of my web pages. But suppose somebody else is referencing those 3 images from their web page...

example:
<img src='http://www.completekamasutra.com/kamasutra1.jpg'>

...then how do I get to know information about the person referencing those images?

Sorry to be such a pain in the neck WRa, but I would appreciate it if you could help.

Rahul
(Hey WRa, would u like me to call u, so I could describe the problem on the phone....and also thank u personally! You could give me your number if it's no hassle)

WRa

Thats okay! I like to help 😉 About those images in your root dir, I dont know the solution or have no idea right now. Maybe only looking in apache logs. And about my phone number I think that calling from India to Slovakia is quite expensive 😉

chokra

But thanks for your time WRa...also, the code you showed me is wonderful, and I am sure I will use the logic to do something interesting soon! See ya around. 🙂