How to protect your Images folder?

[LarryM]

Hi,

NB, not to stop capturing the single displayed Image, but to stop downloading
the entire image directory.
(In my Website you will do a search, and get some thumbnails, and these can be
enlarged one by one).

This topic seems to be frequent.
Some says that you under no circumstances can protect your images, others seem
to have preventing solutions.
Some says that everything uploaded to your web server can be taken down, others
manage to hide files.

As far as I understand so far I have an idea that the following might work.
Please guide me!

My Web provider has given me a space which has a Root folder, and below it is
the WebSiteRoot, which contains my website. The Root folder should not be
available for Web users. There I for instance put my Access DB (accessed through
ODBC). I have FTP access to this space.

So, I would like to put my Image folder in the Root folder, and have my Provider
make it a Virtual Directory in IIS, with an Alias name, and with No Browse
permissons (I hope that does not stop me from seeing it in my FTP program...),
but Write permisson (for me to upload to it), Read permisson (for the Web to get
the images), and with Anonymous Access set off.

Then I can refer to this Virtual Directory from inside my Website, using the
Alias name.
And in IMG SRC you may see the (alias) URL to this Virtual Directory, but an
outside user should not be able to access it.

Could this stop a user from downloading any images from my Image-folder?
Even if they are using some sort of ripoff utility?

(Or should I have to take a step further and ADO stream the image to the
htm-page through an ASP page in order to hide the URL completely?)

(And also, IF the ASP pages are invisible to the browser - could I hide my
images by renaming my .jpg-files to .asp-files? - I mean, the browser gladly
displays the image even if it is called .asp).

Thanks
Larry

[Tom B]

I'm jumping in a little late, but try to think of it this way..
A user requests a page, they get the page.
On the page are links to images <img src="thefolder\ thefile.jpg">
The browser then requests those files.

So, if your images are named in a manner that is easy to figure out (such as
numerically 1.jpg, 2.jpg etc, or alphabetically a.jpg, b.jpg) then it's hard
to prevent someone from writing a script to grab all of them.

To prevent a bulk download script, you can give them hard to guess names
such as "ThePictureOfBo bWearingAFunnyH at.jpg" or you can use the ADO stream
method you mentioned.

The Toronto Sunshine Girl page www.canoe.ca/TorontoSunshine only shows the
Sunshine Girl of the day, however; they store each picture as ssg.jpg in a
subdirectory of the days date (eg .Aug8/ssg.jpg ) so it didn't take long to
write a script that produces....
<img src="Aug8/ssg.jpg">
<img src="Aug7/ssg.jpg">
If they had named them individually, such as JaneDoe.jpg, it would have been
"impossible " to script that.

"LarryM" <lm****@telia.c om> wrote in message
news:ae******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

Hi,

NB, not to stop capturing the single displayed Image, but to stop downloading the entire image directory.
(In my Website you will do a search, and get some thumbnails, and these can be enlarged one by one).

This topic seems to be frequent.
Some says that you under no circumstances can protect your images, others seem to have preventing solutions.
Some says that everything uploaded to your web server can be taken down, others manage to hide files.

As far as I understand so far I have an idea that the following might work. Please guide me!

My Web provider has given me a space which has a Root folder, and below it is the WebSiteRoot, which contains my website. The Root folder should not be
available for Web users. There I for instance put my Access DB (accessed through ODBC). I have FTP access to this space.

So, I would like to put my Image folder in the Root folder, and have my Provider make it a Virtual Directory in IIS, with an Alias name, and with No Browse
permissons (I hope that does not stop me from seeing it in my FTP program...), but Write permisson (for me to upload to it), Read permisson (for the Web to get the images), and with Anonymous Access set off.

Then I can refer to this Virtual Directory from inside my Website, using the Alias name.
And in IMG SRC you may see the (alias) URL to this Virtual Directory, but an outside user should not be able to access it.

Could this stop a user from downloading any images from my Image-folder?
Even if they are using some sort of ripoff utility?

(Or should I have to take a step further and ADO stream the image to the
htm-page through an ASP page in order to hide the URL completely?)

(And also, IF the ASP pages are invisible to the browser - could I hide my
images by renaming my .jpg-files to .asp-files? - I mean, the browser gladly displays the image even if it is called .asp).

Thanks
Larry

[Scott Scott]

Why not protect the image folder by referrer, only allowing access from
approved pages within your website ?

That will solve some of your headaches.

Are these images only available to members (password protected) ?

You can either hand code this, or use AuthentiX.
http://www.flicks.com

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