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 Gradients]()
With CSS border-radius, I showed you how CSS can bridge the gap between design and development by adding rounded corners to elements. CSS gradients are another step in that direction. Now that CSS gradients are supported in Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome...
![How I Stopped WordPress Comment Spam]()
I love almost every part of being a tech blogger: learning, preaching, bantering, researching. The one part about blogging that I absolutely loathe: dealing with SPAM comments. For the past two years, my blog has registered 8,000+ SPAM comments per day. PER DAY. Bloating my database...
![Scrolling “Agree to Terms” Component with MooTools ScrollSpy]()
Remember the good old days of Windows applications forcing you to scroll down to the bottom of the "terms and conditions" pane, theoretically in an effort ensure that you actually read them? You're saying "No David, don't do it." Too late -- I've done...
![Image Manipulation with PHP and the GD Library]()
Yeah, I'm a Photoshop wizard. I rock the selection tool. I crop like a farmer. I dominate the bucket tool. Hell, I even went as far as wielding the wizard wand selection tool once.
...OK I'm rubbish when it comes to Photoshop.
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