External Linking - Policy Change

[Aaron Koehl]

All,

In order to save bandwidth, I have implemented some new procedures to prevent hot-linking for guests. Note: We are not turning off attachments for guests, but we are turning off cross-linking. To view these files externally, you can log in to SawmillCreek first.

There are some browsers out there who will see the below image regardless of whether they are viewing the attachment here or at another site (if not logged in). However, if you are logged in, you will see the proper attachment.

This policy will be in effect at least until I can replace the NIC (network card) in the server.

---
*What is cross-linking (aka hot-linking)?
(Copying the links from SawmillCreek attachments to another website, which results in the image being downloaded from the SMC server everytime the image is viewed at the other site).
---

Registered Members
If you are a registered member (and logged in), you may view attachments here and at other websites, so long as you log in here first.

Guests or Not Logged In
If you are a guest or not logged in, you will only be able to view attachments here at SMC, otherwise, you will see this in place of the picture:



I do not recommend linking to attachments here at SawmillCreek, as the links might be made invalid at any time.

[Chuck Beland]

Registered Members
If you are a registered member (and logged in), you may view attachments here and at other websites, so long as you log in here first.

Question, What other web sites does SMC have???

[Frank Chaffee]

Chuck,
The “other websites” Aaron refers to here include “photobucket” and many other sites available on the web for sharing photos. Also included would be pics posted on other forums and personal websites. When posting pictures on an SMC thread, one browses to the URL of the pic. If that pic is on your computer and within the size constraint of slightly over 100KB or less, then that pic is downloaded to the SMC server, displayed as a thumbnail on the thread, and is archived on SMC. If the URL of the pic is another website and not on your computer, it will not be downloaded to the SMC server, but will rather be linked to in the thread, and displayed full size.
Frank