Block a site from accessing mine

[Bud]

Is it possible to block a site accessing pages on my site?

ie. in my logs I see a site, let's call it: dodgysite.com

and I see that it regularly accesses my site using the url: dodgysite.com/trawlandrob.php


Can I block dodgysite.com from accessing information?

I know I can block an IP but can I block a url?

Thanks

[tbp]

Yes, could do it through PHP. The page referrer if it exists is held in $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']

So you could use the following:

if(substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'],"dodgysite.com") > 0){
  header("Location: you_cant_view_this_site.php");
}

It would be better to do it at the web server level, but you probably won't be able to access the apache config. If you can you can do it using mod_rewrite.

[affMonkey]

yes it is possible and it can be done with a .htaccess file - see here Bud

[tbp]

yes it is possible and it can be done with a .htaccess file

The only problem with that is that quite a few hosting accounts don't allow .htaccess files, or lock it down to provide password protection only.

It is the best way to do it for sure, but the PHP way has the advantage that it will work on any account.

[Bud]

Thanks both.

I think that's sorted it - I'll keep an eye on my stats just to make sure I've got it right.

Appreciated

[affMonkey]

Originally Posted by tbp The only problem with that is that quite a few hosting accounts don't allow .htaccess files, or lock it down to provide password protection anyway.

ok kool I did not know that, thanks for pointing it out tbp