Hotlinking is a term that describes the inclusion of images on a particular website via direct links. When you have website A, for example, and somebody creates website B and wishes to include a couple of images from your Internet site, they are able to either save the images and then add them on their Internet site or they could simply place links on their Internet site to the images on yours. Subsequently, each time a visitor opens site B, site B will steal traffic from your own Internet site A, since the images shall load from your website hosting account. This method is sometimes used for documents and other kinds of files also. If you wish to prevent third parties from stealing your content and from using your own hosting account’s resources, you are able to limit their capability to use direct links to your files on their sites.
Hotlinking Protection in Shared Web Hosting
Due to the fact that our Linux shared web hosting feature a simple and practical hotlink protection tool, you shall be able to defend your content from displaying on third-party websites with literally just two clicks, even if you don't have much experience with such matters. The tool is included with the Hepsia hosting CP and when you open it, you'll just have to select the domain or subdomain which you want to protect. Additionally, you can also select if the hotlink protection will be active for the default domain root folder or only for a subfolder. You will not have to do anything else, due to the fact that our system will create an .htaccess file automatically inside the preferred location and shall include the required code within it. All websites with active hotlink protection shall be listed within exactly the same section, so you can disable this service for any of them with a click.
Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Hosting
If you have a semi-dedicated server account with our company and you notice that somebody has hotlinked any of your images, you can use the security tool we have created and integrated into our in-house built Hepsia hosting CP. As soon as you enable this feature, a server-generated image will appear on the third-party site in place of your real images. You will only need to go to the Hotlink Protection section inside the Control Panel and select the domain or subdomain your site uses from a handy drop-down menu - it is as easy as that. If needed, you will also have the option to switch on the feature just for a particular subfolder and not for the website as a whole. Deactivating the protection is as easy - get back to the same section, check the box beside the specific site and then press the Delete button.