Guide Bypass imageshack hotlinking ban

Going to a site and getting a "hotlinking has been disabled" message?


getting frustrated and begging for non imageshack links.. help is at hand. Follow any of the following methods and bypass the hotlink protection.
Why does this occur?
Basically its imageshacks way of making sure the same site is not using a hellish amount of babdwidth. They monitor requests from the referrer log(which is basically the header info sent whenever you request a image from site hosted on imageshack. If they find same site using lots of bandwith with large BW consuming images, they ban that site alltogether.

So whats the point?
Well the thing is that as of now imageshack uses referrer header info to track what site is requesting the image. Here we can stop the header from being sent and thus prevent imageshack from knowing which site is requesting info...
So i will keep the whole referrer thingy disabled then...?
Well you shouldn't... cos there are many sites which won't work if you do that. So better do it per site basis or session to session basis whenever you need it disable the referrer logging and the re enable.

In the following pages i present the tools to do just that for all 3 main browsers. firefox, opera and IE.

just see the table of contents select your browser and go.....

Note: Just clear the cache/history of your browsers for this to be working. it might fail otherwise.
[break=FireFox users]
FireFox users:

1) the dirty method
go and type about:config in the url box. In the setings that come up..



in above.. in the filter options type network.http.sendRefererHeader

now what is this?
network.http.sendRefererHeader basically controls the referrer header which enables webmasters to know from where the traffic to their site is coming from. By default this is enabled in firefox.
Here are the key options:
0=> Never send the Referer header.

1=>Send the Referer header when clicking on a link.

2=>Send the Referer header when clicking on a link or loading an image.(Default)

Now double click on the 'network.http.sendRefererHeader' and change the value to 0 via the dialogue box that pops up.


Why you shouldn't do this though... well cos some sites will cease to work if you disable the referrer header from being sent. most common examples of sites breaking down: email sites, some image upload sites, security sites.. etc
So if you do do this, i suggest you revert settings when you are ready to quit the given session.

More info about this

2) the smarter way

Go and download this: RefControl

What is it?
Control what gets sent as the HTTP Referer on a per-site basis.

You create a list of sites, and the referrer that should be sent for each site. You can choose to send that referrer unconditionally or only for third-party requests. Additionally, you can specify the default behavior for any site not in the list.
Click to expand...

so click install and restart firefox.
You will see that in bottom taskbar a new reflog icon.


double click that


then click add site.
enter the site name...for which you want to block the referral header from being sent. So if site is wwww.xyz.com you enter www.xyz.com there.
(for imageshack simply replace www.xyz.com with imageshack.us)



Want more info about the same.. go here


from authors site:
Instructions:
You create a list of sites, and the referrer that should be sent for each site.
To adjust settings for a single site, use the name of that site in the list (for instance www.example.com). Alternatively, using just example.com (without the www) in the site list will apply to *.example.com. More specific items in the list take precedence, so if you have example.com and www.example.com in the list, the example.com action will apply to every *.example.com site except for www.example.com.
For the referrer, the following options are available:

* Normal - send the referrer as it would normally be sent without interference from RefControl.
* Block - send no referrer to this site.
* Forge - send the root of the site as the referrer. In the above screenshot, all pages from www.example.net will use http://www.example.net/ as the referrer.
* Custom - type in any string and RefControl will use that as the referrer.

There is also a checkbox 3rd Party requests only. If this box is checked, the option selected above will take effect only for 3rd Party requests (when the site is not the same as the referring site). For example, following a link from http://www.example.com/ to http://www.example.net/ counts as a 3rd Party request. Following a link from http://www.example.net/ to http://www.example.net/index2.html is not a 3rd Party request.
Additionally, you can specify the default behavior for any site not in the list. You can set this to something other than Normal if you want to be more protective about your privacy. Setting it to Block for 3rd Party requests only is a fairly good compromise between privacy and not breaking sites. If you change the default behavior and then want a site to get sent the actual referrer, add it to the list and set it to Normal.
Click to expand...

3) the session to session gloabl way
and the third way is to get the prefbar and have it at top for real time disable enable:
http://prefbar.mozdev.org/

Web Developer Extension for Firefox does almost same job.. it adds a toolbar to Firefox and gives u many options, including disabling referers.

Screenshot -

[break=Opera users]
Opera users...
Well opera seriously rocks.. you will know why. For doing the same thing i explained above.. all you have to do in opera is
go to tools...quick preferences and uncheck enable referrer logging.
see pic below


you can bring quickpreferences directly by pressing F12 key.
Since this is all so easy, you can do it as and when you need it. I would advice you uncheck this for sites you are having probs viewing imageshack pics. once done reenable this setting.

[break=IE users]
IE users
the bad news is that this browser sucks :tongue: so no matter what you can't disable the referrer logging without third party tools
so the only option is to use zap or norton or firewall.

eg in zap-> go to privacy->cookie control->custom->remove private headers...

~~
or if you wanna do this for particular site ->
in ZAP go to privacy tab -> select site list.
if url exists already click on it and select options.. else click add and add the url that you want to add (in our case thats www.xyz.com)
then click options
and select remove private header informations

Thats it... we have covered all three browsers. If you have more tips share them..

Enjoy!!
 
Click to expand...
I've been using the Web Developer Extension for Firefox for many months now.. it adds a toolbar to Firefox and gives u many options, including disabling referers.

Screenshot -
 
Very nice of u for adding opera in that thing!

PS:U can enable disable the referrer logging by just pressing F12 button and clicking the relavent option!
 
As usual, Opera is waay ahead of the innovation game :)
What requires tedious reading, configuring and extension hunting in Firefox is done by simply hitting F12 in Opera.



^ And that's the year old 7.54u2 I am using.
 
actually in opera you can do this persite basis also
go to tools->preferences->advanced->sites..

click new.. add you site.. then go to network and from there disable referrer logging ;)
 
Safin said:
actually in opera you can do this persite basis also
go to tools->preferences->advanced->sites..

click new.. add you site.. then go to network and from there disable referrer logging ;)
Click to expand...
I wont recomend disabling refferer logging globaly in opera.Persite pref is the way to go if you are using v9.
sitepref3jc.jpg
 
Safin said:
no real exp with maxthon.
try the firewall route. All good firewalls support this. Which firewall you using?
Click to expand...

i have windows XP professional OS (without SP1 and SP2) and i am using the default firewall. can u plz elaborate the firewall route method? TIA.

Hacker said:
Btw stop using that browser and switch to firefox
Click to expand...

i have had some bad experiences with firefox:@ . my cousin works in TCS and whenever she comes home and tries to login to that site with firefox, it just won't budge.(after having installed all the plugins, mind you) but in maxthon there's no such prob, it comes preloaded with all the plugins u'll ever need.
but, to each his own.:hap5:

cha.
 
mav3r1ck said:
i have had some bad experiences with firefox:@ . my cousin works in TCS and whenever she comes home and tries to login to that site with firefox, it just won't budge.(after having installed all the plugins, mind you) but in maxthon there's no such prob, it comes preloaded with all the plugins u'll ever need.
but, to each his own.:hap5:
Click to expand...

Thatz bcoz the site she wants to open does not support firefox, it was made for IE and maxthon uses IE but you can download the ieview plugin for firefox and see if that helps.
 
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