Block Domains & Subdomains Using .htaccess
A large focus of my redesign was improving site speed, and in doing so, I took a look at my site's error_log for the first time in a long time. I was shocked when I found out that 90% of my site errors were either hacking attempts or hot-linked files from hundreds of different tumblr.com subdomains. Thousands upon thousands of PHP fatal errors due to lack of memory saw me seeing red pretty quick -- no wonder I was having periodical speed issues! Luckily this bit of .htaccess code allows me block all of those sites:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^https?://([^.]+\.)*tumblr\.com [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]
</IfModule>
These days I only see PHP notices in my error_log, and that makes me a very happy man. I've also noticed less SPAM commenting, so maybe Tumblr is used a SPAM hub too? Either way, blocking domains and subdomains did the trick for me!
![CSS 3D Folding Animation]()
Google Plus provides loads of inspiration for front-end developers, especially when it comes to the CSS and JavaScript wonders they create. Last year I duplicated their incredible PhotoStack effect with both MooTools and pure CSS; this time I'm going to duplicate...
![39 Shirts – Leaving Mozilla]()
In 2001 I had just graduated from a small town high school and headed off to a small town college. I found myself in the quaint computer lab where the substandard computers featured two browsers: Internet Explorer and Mozilla. It was this lab where I fell...
![Image Protection Using PHP, the GD Library, JavaScript, and XHTML]()
Warning: The demo for this post may brick your browser.
A while back I posted a MooTools plugin called dwProtector that aimed to make image theft more difficult -- NOT PREVENT IT COMPLETELY -- but make it more difficult for the rookie to average user...
![MooTools & Printing – Creating a Links Table of Contents]()
One detail we sometimes forget when considering print for websites is that the user cannot see the URLs of links when the page prints. While showing link URLs isn't always important, some websites could greatly benefit from doing so. This tutorial will show you...
There are 2 issues with your solution:
1) If a legit person linked to your blog from their Tumblr blog, people would see a Forbidden message. This is because you have your images under the same domain as the blog. Keeping them on the sub-domain would save your visitors from this.
2) Security – probably a minor issue, but when you get a Forbidden message from Apache, you also get a path to the content you were forbidden to access. And since you are using WordPress with caching, the message looks as follows:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /wp-content/w3tc/pgcache//block-domain/_index_search_engines.html_gzip on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Server at davidwalsh.name Port 80
Thanks for sharing Shimon. Per your points:
1. If it’s only specific subdomains hurting you, listing them one by one would be best, I agree. In my case, I don’t care if legit Tumblr sites are linking to me. :)
2. I’ll look into the Forbidden issue — thanks!
Wow. blocking anyone comming from tumblr seems pretty extreme to me, you could at least add a RewriteCond to block only static content.
Seems like a lot of work, when this doesn’t even require mod_rewrite:
deny from .tumbler.com