Hotlinking is an expression that represents the inclusion of images on a given website by using direct links. If you have website A, for instance, and an individual creates site B and wants to add a few images from your website, they're able to either save the images and then add them on their site or they can simply place links on their site to the images on yours. Consequently, each time a visitor opens site B, site B will steal traffic from your own website A, as the images shall load straight from your web hosting account. This technique is sometimes used for documents and other sorts of files also. If you'd like to prevent 3rd parties from stealing your content and from using your own web hosting account’s resources, you'll be able to restrict their ability to use direct links to your files on their sites.

Hotlinking Protection in Web Hosting

It won't require more than a number of mouse clicks to switch on the hotlink protection function that we provide even if this is the very first website hosting account which you use, because all our Linux web hosting packages come with a very simple and easy to work with tool that will permit you to prevent direct links to your content. The tool is an element of our revolutionary Hepsia Control Panel, so it offers the same exact intuitive point & click interface. Once you log in to your account’s back office and navigate to the Hotlink Protection section, you will simply have to select the domain or subdomain that you would like to protect from a drop-down list. If you wish to enable this function only for a specific website folder, you will have the option to do that. All sites with active hotlink protection shall appear inside this section and you can easily 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 our company and you find out that another person 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 Control Panel. Once you enable this function, a server-generated image will appear on the third-party Internet site in place of your actual images. You will only need to check out the Hotlink Protection section inside the Control Panel and select the domain or subdomain that your website uses from a convenient drop-down menu - it is as basic as that. If needed, you'll also have the option to switch on the function just for a particular subfolder and not for the website in its entirety. Deactivating the protection is just as effortless - return to the very same section, check the box alongside the particular website and then click on the Delete button.