Hotlinking is an expression that identifies the inclusion of images on a particular site by using direct links. If you have website A, for instance, and someone creates website B and wants to include a few images from your site, they can either save the images and then include them on their site or they can simply put links on their site to the images on yours. As a result, when a visitor opens site B, site B will steal traffic from your own Internet site A, since the images shall load straight from your website hosting account. This process is oftentimes used for documents and other sorts of files too. If you wish to prevent 3rd parties from stealing your content and from using your own web hosting account’s resources, you can limit their ability to use direct links to your files on their sites.
Hotlinking Protection in Website Hosting
It shall not require more than a number of mouse clicks to switch on the hotlink security function we offer you even if this is the 1st hosting account you use, because all our website hosting come with a rather simple and user-friendly tool that will allow you to stop direct links to your content. The tool is a component of our advanced Hepsia CP, so it features the same exact intuitive point & click interface. When you log in to your account’s back office and navigate to the Hotlink Protection section, you will simply need to pick the domain or subdomain you want to protect from a drop-down list. If you'd like to enable this feature only for a particular site folder, you will have the option to do that. All Internet sites with enabled hotlink protection shall appear inside this section and you will be able to deactivate the service by selecting the checkbox beside the given website and clicking on the Delete button.
Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Servers
If you have a semi-dedicated server account with our company and you notice that another person has hotlinked any of your images, you can use the security tool which we have developed and incorporated 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 site as a substitute for your real images. You'll only need to visit the Hotlink Protection section in the CP and select the domain or subdomain that your site uses from a convenient drop-down menu - it is as simple as that. If required, you shall also have the option to switch on the feature only for a particular subfolder and not for the website altogether. Deactivating the function is as easy - return to the very same section, check the box beside the specific website and then press the Delete button.