Viewing Thread:
"Can I tell who's been linking to my site?"

Yo, I saw an interesting feature on a website the other day - a "who's linking to this page" list - and wondered if it was something that can be found out using web-witchcraft, or had the person simply made the list themselves? I use mod_rewrite and .htaccess, which are mainly for disallowing access to protected files, or files linked to outside of a script, but it's far more interesting (to me, anyway) to see who's been linking and to publish that information.

Had a look on Google, but all I can find is info on mod_rewrite/htaccess - any ideas? I'm guessing it would have to be some sort of server protocol. can you use PHP commands within an .htaccess file to log access?

Yo, I saw an interesting feature on a website the other day - a "who's linking to this page" list - and wondered if it was something that can be found out using web-witchcraft, or had the person simply made the list themselves? I use mod_rewrite and .htaccess, which are mainly for disallowing access to protected files, or files linked to outside of a script, but it's far more interesting (to me, anyway) to see who's been linking and to publish that information.

Had a look on Google, but all I can find is info on mod_rewrite/htaccess - any ideas? I'm guessing it would have to be some sort of server protocol. can you use PHP commands within an .htaccess file to log access?

My web host has a list of websites which have referred people to my website,so gohave a look and see if your host has a referral list for your site.

I get mine through Webalizer statistics package.

Tells me IP addresses of people visiting my site, how much they download, how many times each page gets hit, the browsers people are using, where in the world they arefrom etc.etc.

Servers logs usually carry referer information so you can extract the information from your access logs if its turned on. You can also try using $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] in PHP to extract it as well.
Theres also some free services that do it all for you such as
http://referer.org/

And just to save anybody else the bother of saying so, referal information isnt exactly trustworthy. Some browsers dont send it, or allow you to change it. Also its a tool for spamming and generating link farms. Some of the sites I run regularly get alot of referers from porn sites despite there clearly being no link. Also theres spyware out there that thinks its amusing to change the referer. So basically, its dubious information to publish on your site. :)

If you're just interested in the information, you can do
[URL]http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=link%3Awww.pocketmonkey.co.uk&meta=[/URL] too.

So basically not a good idea then!

OK, thanks for the advice.

I was gonna do that too, but I never got anywhere with it because it requires thought and effort.

$ref=@$HTTP_REFERER;

CONNECT

$sql = "UPDATE file SET ref='$ref' WHERE id=$id";

$result = mysql_query($sql);

mysql_close($db);

That's my really crude version of it, it displays the last referring site to each file that's accessed.

[URL]http://www.phi11ip.com/search.php[/URL]

That's what it shows up as.

Hey, not trying to tread on your toes, but if you're having trouble doing search functions in SQL...

[URL]http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_where.asp[/URL] - scroll down to LIKE.

(sorry)

Hehe, I could easily do that if I had the patience to sit there and go through it, but I'm crap and I have no motivation.

I haven't updated the site in ages, people are getting angry at me.

I'm not.

Grrr.

Etc.