Tom Raftery’s I.T. views

Hotlinking, remote image linking, direct image linking is when a remote website embeds images from your site on their webpage(s) - this causes the image to be served from your website to anyone browsing their site - thus they are robbing your bandwidth.

How can you stop this? Well, using an .htaccess file in your images […]

The .htaccess file is a very powerful tool - amongst other things, it allows you to password protect folders, redirect users automatically, use custom error pages, change your file extensions, ban users by IP address, only allow users with certain IP addresses, stop directory listings and use an alternate index file.
Creating the file is […]

Well, I checked out the WordPress Plugin Repository, mentioned in a previous post, and I have to say I was extremely underwhelmed.
The interface is appalling - it is very difficult to find your way around, in particular trying the relevant files for download or trying to find descriptions of plugins is nigh on impossible.
This […]

I looked through the various extensions for Firefox when I upgraded to version 1.0 to find new toys! I came across a very handy extension called Search Status which displays both the Google and Alexa page rank of the webpage being browsed.
Now I note Michele has also found a Firefox extension with similar functionality. It […]

Gardaí (the Irish police force) at Midleton, Co. Cork are searching for Robert Holohan, an 11 year old boy, who has been missing from his home at Ballyedmund, Midleton since 2.30 p.m. on 4th January 2005.

Robert Holohan left his home on his BMX bicycle and hasn’t been seen since. His bike was found at 5.15 […]

WordPress, the blogging software of choice for me, have announced the WordPress Plugin Repository.
The Repository give free hosting to developers and is a one-stop-shop for WordPress users to browse/download WordPress plugins and themes, provide feedback to the developers and, for the particularly enthusiastic, develop documentation at the wiki page for the plugins they use. […]

I am having problems with referrer spam at the moment. I have written about this issue in the past, but the measures I took then do not appear to be as effective as I had hoped.
As a result, I am now undertaking more research on other means of stopping this scourge and as soon […]

I am back after the holiday break (had a great time in the south of Spain, thanks) - and I am swamped in post holiday IT issues! Always after holidays when people come back and turn on their PC’s, servers, routers, etc., there is a surge in IT issues and this year has been no […]