Mini HowTo: Using htaccess to block hot linking images

August 1st, 2010

Objective: Stop another site from using your web images on their site as their own, using your server resources including bandwidth.

WARNING: Errors made in your htaccess file could cause your site to fail. You can restore operation of your web site by removing or renaming the htaccess file.

The file .htaccess (there is a dot in front of htaccess). This dot prevents the file from being viewed via a web browser.

Some htaccess files can be very advanced, this is just basic information to protect your images.

You can reference this tutorial for more information:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/htaccess.html

So, let’s get started!

open your favorite text editor, notepad for you windows users, and nano or vi for you Linux users.

Place the following into your page (taking note to replace m3server.com with our own domain name, you can also allow other domains to link your images, as I did here, with m3xs.com).

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(.*\.)?blamcast.net [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(.*\.)?m3server.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(.*\.)?m3xs.com [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpeg|jpg|gif|png)$ – [F]

Save the file, name it .htaccess and upload it to your site’s root directory. (domain.com/.htaccess)
If you have other image extensions than the above noted, you can add those here as well.

Now, test it, make sure it works like you need it to.

- M3Server.com
World Class Hosting Since 1996!

Apache redirect non SSL to SSL

July 22nd, 2010

Customer writes:
“How do I redirect my site to the SSL secure site?”

Add this to your .htaccess file, or create one if you do not have one already (upload this to your site’s root directory).

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://my.m3server.com/

Now, when someone clicks or types in your URL, they will be taken to your secure URL.

Just replace my.m3server.com in the example above with your site’s domain name, and please test to ensure this is the action you are trying to achieve.

Travis

Mini Howto: iPhone Email App Setup

July 19th, 2010

Creating New Mail Accounts for iPhone

*Open iPhone and select the settings app
*You will then scroll down until you find the selection labeled “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
*When you choose Mail, Contacts, Calendars you will see different headings and changeable options for that heading
*The first heading will be labeled “Accounts”
*Here you can edit your existing mail accounts or add a new one
*Select the option “Add Account…”
*This will take you to the Add Account… page where you can choose from the most popular email service providers, such as G-Mail or Yahoo, or you can choose the “other” option to create your own
*Once you have selected the “other” option you will arrive at the Other page where the first heading is labeled “Mail”
*Under the Mail heading is an option to Add Mail Account that you will select
*You will then arrive at the New Account page where you will enter your account information (Name, Address, Password, and Description)
*For “Name” you will use your actual first and last name
*For “Address” you will use your mailing address, the example provided is “example@me.com”
*You will select your own password
*The default for the description will be your mailing address, you can change it if you’d like
*You will then choose the save option at the top right of your screen
*After saving your information you will be asked for more New Account information regarding incoming and outgoing mail servers

SELECT POP AT THE TOP OF THE MENU BEFORE PROCEEDING

*Scroll down to the incoming mail server and enter your server host name:

example: domain.com
incorrect example: pop3.domain.com

*Scroll down to the outgoing mail server and enter your server host name:

example: domain.com
incorrect example: smtp.domain.com

*Then select “Save” which is again located at the top right of your screen
*Please wait while the iPhone verifys your information
*If a box appears that says “Cannot Connect Using SSL” you need to select yes to make sure you’re not using SSL (Your mail account will not work using SSL)
*It is possible that the iPhone will say Cannot Connect Using SSL a second time. Be sure to select yes again
*After you select not to use SSL your phone will verify the account information and automatically save it, returning you to the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” screen
*To access your new mail account you will go to the mail app where you will have to select your new account if you already have existing ones
*Once you’ve selected the account you want you can check your new mail with the inbox option or use the box at the bottom right of your screen to send a new message
*You can also use the arrow at the bottom left of your screen to manually check for new mail

Bret
M3Server.com

Internet Speed

May 26th, 2010

Okay, so I had to post this.

All of a sudden my browser, reliable Firefox, became very slow. At first I thought the site I was on was slow. Then, I assumed it was windows 7, lol. Then, I blamed my high speed Internet connection. Nope.

In fact, it turns out, checking the taskmanager process list, Firefox had consumed 300 MBs of ram, yea, that would slow it down!

Rebooted, problem remained.

What to do? I refuse to use IE8, my personal opinion. I in turn, downloaded Google’s Chrome.

Boy, was I amazed. Not only did chrome import all of my links, favs, and passwords from firefox… SPEED!

So, before you blame your server, or your favorite web site, test another browser. I was surprised.

Updated:
Keep google chrome fast by making these changes in your google chrome options:

  1. click on options, the wrench icon on the top right
  2. click on the tap “Under the Hood”
  3. Uncheck all options!

Clear the cache, close the browser, open it back up, and it will be fast as new.  Clear your cache from time to time (I don’t clear my passwords, as that is a royal pain).

- Travis

Domain Name Servers DNS

May 22nd, 2010

When registering domains for your M3server account, please use the following DNS servers for your domain registrations.

Name: ns1.simplecom.net
Address: 69.64.94.15

Name: ns2.simplecom.net
Address: 216.177.153.3

M3Server.com