Seeing images on local (on pc) pages

I'm not sure where to post this, but this problem is driving me nuts. My hosting package comes with "hotlink protection." I use it for both my sites normally, but I had to take the hotlink protection off one site because I can't see the images on the pages I'm working on (on my pc).

It's hard to explain. When I remove all meta tag information from the headers the code pulls the images from the local file (on my pc), but that's a pain to do--take off the meta information then put it back on again.

My hosting company doesn't understand what I'm talking about so I gave up trying to talk to them. lol Let's put it this way: If I were to disconnect my modem from the computer I wouldn't see any images on the locally stored files (html docs) on my PC. BUT, if I remove the meta tags.. I can see them because they pull from the local folder rather than the online directory. In other words.. the server thinks my pc is trying to hotlink my images while I'm working on them. make sense? I have cable modem access.

now here's the confusing part: Two sites, both with hotlink protection enabled, each has a different result---one site I'm able to see images on the local pages while I work on them, and the other I can't.

I use notepad to work on these pages, so how can I have both worlds?---hotlink protection AND be able to edit my html docs on my pc and see the images while I work? Do I have to remove the meta tag info to do this?

Yes, It's confusing. I know.

Ummmmmm....hmmmmmm.

Are you using full URLs for your images? Like a full URL "http://blah.com/images/whatever.jpg"

I'm fairly confused... What is hotlink protection?
What exactly are you trying to do that it is preventing?

As far as I can tell, it stops people linking to images on their servers, unless it's your uploaded page doing the linking and the problem is that when you work on the files locally, you can't see the images?

Catalyst: No, I'm not using absolute html. It has something to do with the headers because if I remove them then the page accesses the image files, etc. from the directory on my desktop. format is: /directory/imagename.jpg and so forth.

Sirkent: Hotlink protection is a program or something on the hosting server that stops hotlinking. For signature pics, avatars, etc. that I use on BB's like this one I have to add the url to this site, for instance, to allow hotlinking. When hotlink protection is enabled, though, the server thinks my PC is trying to hotlink images, so they don't show up.

Is there a BASE tag in the header?

Yes, there is a base tag with my url in it.

That's the one. Get rid of that (unless you're using it on purpose for something). Shouldn't affect your hotlink preventer.

I'll try it! Thanks so much. That was REALLY irritating me.