Hotlinking is an expression that refers to the inclusion of images on a particular site via direct links. If you have website A, for example, and a person creates website B and wishes to include a number of images from your website, they can either save the images and then include them on their site or they can simply place links on their site to the images on yours. As a result, when a visitor opens Internet site B, site B will steal traffic from your own Internet site A, as the images will load straight from your web hosting account. This process is typically used for documents and other sorts of files too. If you'd like to prevent third parties from stealing your content and from using your own hosting account’s resources, you'll be able to restrict their capability to use direct links to your files on their websites.
Hotlinking Protection in Shared Hosting
It won't take more than a number of mouse clicks to enable the hotlink protection feature which we provide even if this is the first web hosting account which you use, since all our Linux shared hosting packages include a very simple and easy-to-use tool that will enable you to stop direct links to your content. The tool is an element of our advanced Hepsia CP, so it features the same exact intuitive point & click interface. As soon as you log in to your account’s back office and navigate to the Hotlink Protection section, you will simply need to choose the domain or subdomain that you want to protect from a drop-down list. If you would like to activate this function only for a particular Internet site folder, you will have the option to do that. All sites with enabled hotlink protection shall appear inside this section and you will be able to deactivate the service by selecting the checkbox next to the given site and pressing the Delete button.
Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Hosting
If you have a semi-dedicated server account with us and you discover that somebody has hotlinked any of your images, you may use the security tool that we have created and integrated into our in-house built Hepsia hosting CP. As soon as you activate this option, a server-generated image will appear on the third-party website rather than your actual images. You will only need to navigate to the Hotlink Protection section within the Control Panel and choose the domain or subdomain which your Internet site uses from a practical drop-down menu - it is as easy as that. If needed, you will also have the option to switch on the feature for a particular subfolder and not for the website altogether. Deactivating the feature is just as simple - return to the very same section, check the box next to the given Internet site and then click on the Delete button.