Hotlinking is an expression that represents the addition of images on a given Internet site by using direct links. If you have website A, for instance, and an individual creates website B and wants to include a couple of images from your website, they're able to either save the images and then include them on their site or they could simply place links on their Internet site to the images on yours. As a result, every time a visitor opens website B, site B will steal traffic from your own website A, as the images shall load straight from your website hosting account. This method is oftentimes used for documents and other kinds of files also. If you would like to prevent 3rd parties from stealing your content and from using your own hosting account’s resources, you are able to restrict their capability to use direct links to your files on their sites.

Hotlinking Protection in Website Hosting

Due to the fact that our Linux website hosting provide a simple and practical hotlink protection tool, you shall be able to defend your content from showing on third-party sites with literally no more than two clicks, even if you do not have very much experience with this type of matters. The tool is available in the Hepsia hosting CP and once you open it, you'll just have to select the domain or subdomain that you would like to protect. Additionally, you could also choose if the hotlink protection will be enabled for the default domain root folder or only for a subfolder. You won't need to do anything else, as our system will create an .htaccess file automatically in the needed location and will include the required code in it. All websites with active hotlink protection will be listed inside the very same section, so you can easily disable this service for any of them with a click.

Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Hosting

If you have a semi-dedicated server account with us and you find out that someone has hotlinked any of your images, you can use the security tool that we have designed and integrated into our in-house built Hepsia hosting CP. As soon as you enable this option, a server-generated image will appear on the third-party site as a substitute for your actual images. You'll only need to go to the Hotlink Protection section inside the CP and select the domain or subdomain which your site uses from a practical drop-down menu - it is as easy as that. When necessary, you shall also have the option to enable the function just for a specific subfolder and not for the website altogether. Deactivating the feature is just as simple - return to the very same section, check the box beside the particular Internet site and then press the Delete button.