disable source to links

[macombwebsite]

I run a very popular high school sports web site. I understand you can NOT completly hide the source code, and have tried the Source Code Encrypter with no success. The web page is made in Microsoft Publisher then imported into Frontpage. I am really trying to make it difficult for any one to find out the names of the differnet links to different standing pages there are. Below is an example of part of my coding. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

<area shape="rect" coords="63,36,184,60" href="http://www.macombmac.misd.net/girlsbb.htm">

[bluewalrus]

It depends on what your trying to hide, and from who. More than likely if it must be html than the awnser is no.

[djr33]

1. Find the link. 2. Right click. 3. "copy link".

There's no way to stop that. You can make it difficult (for example, trying to disable right click), but it will just be annoying and there are many ways to get around it.

The most obvious example here is that if you click the link, then you can just cut and paste the url from the page.

[macombwebsite]

what about instead of trying to hide the source code, I try to make the url and web address show up as something else, using the above example. Thanks

[traq]

you can use .htaccess if your host allows mod_rewrite, but you'll have to learn. it takes some study and can really mess things up if you do it wrong.

You could also use PHP to include() whatever page you want to display without disclosing the file's location on the server (even put the file "behind" the public www folder), but since you import the file anyway, it wouldn't actually conceal any of the contents.

Why do you want to hide the URLs, exactly? What's the point?

[macombwebsite]

as I have said I have a very popular sports web site, what I am finding out, is other people are just linking to my indivdual pages and setting the links to there web site, so when you go there web site and click on standings you get my page, this is what I am trying to stop.
What about banning an ip address?
changing somehow the name of the web pages so they can't see the address to the page
Any suggestions on how to prevent this kind of invasion would help.
I am on a county school server to
you can email me direct if you like at: macombmac@hotmail.com

I really appreciate any help you can offer

[bluewalrus]

Linking to your site is a good thing, it will increase your traffic and page ranking, or do you mean they are pulling the content from your page and hosting it on their page?

Perhaps you only want the content accessible from your main page though? You could do this with php, my making the pages load a window that says "please go here [link to main page] and click something to view this content of this page" then the main page sets a cookie or a session value and allows the content to display. You'd have to keep track of the page they came from as well though. This I think would decrease your page ranking though as robots would get that please go here for every page instead of the content previously.

[traq]

If you're talking about "hotlinking" (other sites showing your content on their pages, using your bandwidth), then .htaccess is the best option. Start here (http://www.google.com/search?q=.htaccess+hotlinking&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a).

If this other site is only linking (providing their users a link they can click on and actually visit your site), then (as bluewalrus says) it's not a bad thing, and I'd just let it be. It means other sites are recognizing you as an authority and are recommending you to their users.

[djr33]

If you are worried about hotlinking, then you can try to stop it, but I agree- the hits are only helpful.

The best method is to use this to your advantage: make sure your design has a clear indication of a link to the home page maybe accompanied by "MySite: Home of Up to Date Sports Information!", or something like that. That way people who end up on one of the pages on your site will eventually get to the main page (at least some of them).
Basically it's like placing an ad for you site on your site and getting free advertisements.

[macombwebsite]

response to DJR33,

There are many schools in the county that are linked to my web site. The AD's refer to my site as the web site of the Conference. So the good hits, I don't have a problem with, but it is the idiots, that are pissing me off.

Could I block his IP address? I am on a County wide Server. Than ks

How would I code something like the following line, using your idea

<area shape="rect" coords="63,36,184,60" href="http://www.macombmac.misd.net/girlsbb.htm">

[djr33]

His server is not going to your website. Instead, people are using links from his website to go to yours. You could filter out the "referrer" string sent by the users and block or redirect anyone who comes from his site, but this is not entirely reliable (some browsers may not do it correctly, and users can, if they know enough, fake it), and most importantly this would mean that these users (who are more or less legitimate) would probably get annoyed by your site and just leave. If you still want to do it, it's fairly simple in php:
$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']
At the top of the page, just take that, check if part of the string is his website, then redirect based on that. If not, continue as usual.
This is also probably possible using .htaccess as suggested by Traq and that might be (slightly) more reliable (though probably not by much) and a little less work to maintain. I'm not sure exactly how you'd approach that, but you can find tutorials on google pretty easily. But do remember that you are blocking people that are coming FROM his site, not blocking his site directly.

[traq]

Another thought: if it's just the fact that this other site is misrepresenting your site as the "conference website," have you tried emailing him and asking that their ads be corrected? People are often willing to make corrections if you ask politely. If he doesn't cooperate, you can let him know you'll have to redirect and/or block all users referred from his site.