Hotlinking is a term which represents the inclusion of images on a particular Internet site via direct links. In case you have website A, for example, and an individual creates website B and wants to add a few images from your website, they're able to either save the images and then include them on their Internet site or they may simply place links on their website to the images on yours. Consequently, whenever a visitor opens Internet site B, site B will steal traffic from your own website A, because the images shall load straight from your web hosting account. This approach is typically used for documents and other types of files too. If you wish to prevent third parties from stealing your content and from using your own hosting account’s resources, you could restrict their ability to use direct links to your files on their sites.

Hotlinking Protection in Cloud Website Hosting

It shall not require more than a couple of clicks to switch on the hotlink security feature we offer even if this is the first hosting account you use, because all our Linux cloud website hosting come with a rather simple and easy to work with tool that will enable you to stop direct links to your content. The tool is an element of our innovative Hepsia CP, so it provides the very same intuitive point & click interface. Once you log in to your account’s back office and navigate to the Hotlink Protection section, you'll only need to choose the domain or subdomain you want to protect from a drop-down list. If you would like to switch on this feature only for a certain site folder, you've got the option to do that. All sites with enabled hotlink protection shall appear in this section and you can deactivate the service by selecting the checkbox next to the given website and clicking on the Delete button.

Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Servers

If you do not want others to use your images on their sites without your consent, you could easily enable the hotlink security feature, that is offered with all semi-dedicated server packages. Instead of creating an .htaccess file yourself within the Internet site folder and writing some code in it, which is the standard method to deny direct linking to files, you can use an exceedingly simple tool, that we have integrated into the Hepsia Control Panel. From it, you will simply have to choose the website that has to be secured and our system will do the rest. Optionally, you can decide whether the .htaccess file should be created directly in the root folder or within a subfolder, in case you want to enable the hotlink protection feature just for some content and not for the whole website. Disabling it is just as simple - you'll simply have to mark the checkbox next to the specific website and to click on the Delete button.