Fusker Network????
 

Saw this in my stats today... only to discover I had been hot linked on a site I failed to protect... my bad I know... but then when I had a look around I realised I was certainly not alone.

http://fusker.lewww.com/index.php

I hate this shit |angry|

They hotlink me all the the time. I had over 200 from them yesterday sent to my "errors" page :D

Yeah I see them in my stats ever day.

I have everything protected so I hope they enjoy my error pages. :D

There are some real dummies out there. My 404 page where everything is redirected is the second highest entry page on many of my domains. |sad|

This fusker guy is an ass and there's another one too called webrats or something I think.

I get between 10,000 and 50,000 hits from them a week but the bandwidth is nothing becasue they never get a picture.

Same here! |pissed|

You think sponsors would drop assholes like that.

I have had them hotlinking me and I sent them an email.. all of my domains were instantly removed and I havent been hotlinked since.

You may want to try it.

Terry

True Terry, they do state on their page if your domain is being listed and would like it removed just email them. Worked for me also,

I luckily was protected and all they get on their end is a red X, but how are they redirected to any page? I checked out their site and all you see is the red X's and no links, so does the surfer ever get redirected to your 404?

thanks

You shouldn't HAVE to ask because the fuckhead is in the wrong from the word go. And a certain sponsor has had this made very clear to them what he is doing and refused to do anything. Sponsors really could give a rats ass as long as they make money.

I wondered that as well.

Fusker has been averaging about 4-6,000 per day the last few months across all my domains. In the last 24 hours, on one domain, they hit me with 160,000+. They must love my error pages. :)

Exactly. And I've seen some sponsors say they like it. With their url on the page it's more advertising for them. :(

Well on one of the sponsor's board a guy was complaining about beeing fuskered and asked the sponsor to cancel fuskers account but he refused so...

Granted, you shouldn't have to email these jackoffs to get your images taken down but I sent them an email listing all of my domains and informed them that I will never "fusker" my images so to not accept 'fuskers' under those domains. They immediately took down all the pages with my stuff on them and I would have to check and see if there are any new ones attempting it.

Even if they are just getting the red x's it is still putting a slight load on your server every time they attempt it so I would recommend sending the emails out.

I googled "fusker" and lo and behold fusker.com came up as the first result. Apparently fusker is a free script you can put on your site, sort of like a blog program, but for hotlinking images instead. There is not just 1 site running fusker, there a lots... maybe around 100 or so. So blocking one domain in htaccess probably won't solve all your problems.

Also, each site lets visitors download a toolbar if they want, so they can submit galleries they think should be fuskered, right from their browser as they find them.

Finally, I've spoken with one of the (large) sponsors who has a link on the fusker.com site, and I believe they are paying fusker.com to include their sponsor link with the script when it installs. The script is likely "free" for download since it comes with this built-in advertising. It is quite a racket they're running.

Anyway, check fusker.com for a list of the sites running this program. :(

In my case it isn't just fusker there are many. http://www.freeforumzone.com/ is hitting me as hard as fusker. I have all my images protected so no worries. Just the aggravation of seeing them where ligit referrals should be. |pissed|

Surfn you need to find a way to convert that traffic|jester|

Anyway, I rechecked my cpanel and I am still not recieving any hits from fusker so the email definitely does the tirck. I threw some legal speak mumbo jumbo and said something about my lawyers contacting them and it solved the problem. Definitely worth the 5 minutes it took to type an email to them.

I guess I better get busy then and send them an e-mail since they're showing up in 90% of my domains referrer stats. |pissed|

Are you using hotlink protection? There is a good thread about it here:

http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...&threadid=9577

I put up a hotlink htaccess code and a link there to a good resource for htaccess help.

Yes, I'm using .htaccess and my images are showing up as broken but still.... I'd like them to remove my sites.

Ya I was hit by them too a few or so months back asked them to remove me and they did. Havent seen one hit since then.

It may well have been the sponsor I was alluding to in my post above...

Here is something that just occurred to me. What is Fusker and the other bandwidth theif sites going to do with the new 2257 laws? How can they possibly stay in business and out of hot water after the new regs go into effect?

Would be nice to hear that the owner of Fusker got carted off for 5 years wouldn't it?|rasta|