Can i use htaccess etc to stop hotlinking

yes ..and if you are hosted using cpanel you can do it easily there without having to write your own .htaccess file ..
( if you do want to know how to write such files ..post in apache forum here )

I do host my own image files for selling on ebay too so i take it ebay and such like would be blocked if i can htaccess hotlinking?

yes ..but ..you can either via cpanel ..or in .htaccess file allow ebay to link to your images ..however that would allow anyone else running ebay auctions to link to them to for their auctions ..

some other hosting control panels may also let you do one click anti hotlinking ..

Where are they hotlinking to? If it is Ebay, personally I just rename my image to something else and put an ad for my site in place of the old image. i.e. for better prices on this product visit www.mysite.com.

If is to something like a gamer using your image as an avatar you can rename the image and replace it with something like a Hello Kitty picture.

[edited by: Jane_Doe at 12:23 am (utc) on June 3, 2009]

Cheers the replies, what it is, is another Blog hotlinking the images and probs the text but i can't read it, its in chinese i think.

So to stop this happening i was thinking on htaccess bit, i would change the images but it would mean i would have to constantly check which i don't have the time for.

Ebay bit hasn't been a problem touch wood, now i say it it will be an issue lol.

Unfortunaly my server is on Plesk 8 so i think its hand coded htaccess file.

Any way off to the apache forum bit for the advice.

Unsure but i think i am losing the plot. were is the Apache section?

[webmasterworld.com...]

thanks couldn't see it for looking.

When I spotted someone doing that to me I created a new jpg file which had this text "This ebayer steals bandwidth and breaks copyright... Really want to trust your money to him?" and I had all the images he was leaching point to that jpg.

Strangely he stopped leaching off me very quickly after that...

Gotta love the power of .htaccess

My personal favorite is a 1px X 32000px transparent .gif.

Many of them never use the size attribute for the image so it breaks the layouts on a lot of pages, the hotlinker has no clue since they have the imaged cached locally. Once the cached image expires assuming they don't notice the missing image the page is now broken with no visible reason why... LOL.

Thanks for the info much appreciated.

My personal favorite is a 1px X 32000px transparent .gif.

That's brilliant. I could have used that a few years ago...