Hotlinking is an expression which identifies the addition of images on a particular website via direct links. If you have site A, for example, and an individual creates site B and wishes to include a couple of images from your Internet site, they're able to either save the images and then include them on their website or they may simply place links on their website to the images on yours. Subsequently, every time a visitor opens Internet site B, site B will steal traffic from your own Internet site A, because the images shall load directly from your web hosting account. This approach is usually used for documents and other sorts of files too. If you want to prevent third 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 Cloud Hosting
It will not take more than a number of clicks to switch on the hotlink security function that we offer you even if this is the first web hosting account which you use, as all our Linux cloud hosting include a quite simple and easy to work with tool that will enable you to stop direct links to your content. The tool is a component of our revolutionary Hepsia CP, so it has the same exact intuitive point-and-click interface. After you log in to your account’s back office and go to the Hotlink Protection section, you will only have to pick the domain or subdomain that you would like to protect from a drop-down list. If you'd like to switch on this feature only for a particular website folder, you will have the option to do that. All Internet sites with active hotlink protection shall appear within this section and you can disable the service by selecting the checkbox beside the given website and pressing the Delete button.
Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Hosting
If you don't want others to use your images on their websites without your authorization, you can easily switch on the hotlink security feature, which is offered with all semi-dedicated server packages. As opposed to generating an .htaccess file manually in the Internet site folder and writing some code within it, which is the traditional method to deny direct linking to files, you can use a very simple tool, which we have incorporated into the Hepsia Control Panel. From it, you'll only need to pick the Internet site that needs to be secured and our system will do the rest. Additionally, you can decide whether the .htaccess file needs to be set up directly in the root folder or in a subfolder, when you would like to enable the hotlink protection function only for some content and not for the whole site. Deactivating it is just as effortless - you will only need to mark the checkbox next to the particular site and to click on the Delete button.