Hotlinking is a largely accepted Internet expression for linking to another website’s images. In other words, if you build a site, another person may want to use the images that you have and instead of downloading them from your website and then uploading them to their own Internet site, they can simply put links to your Internet site. That way, each time a visitor opens their site, the images shall be loaded from your account, thus stealing from your own monthly traffic quota, not to mention the copyright problems which may present themselves or that somebody could be trying to trick people into thinking that they are actually on your Internet site. In rare occasions, documents and other types of files may also be linked in the exact same way. To stop this from happening and to avoid this kind of situations, you could permit hotlink protection for your website.

Hotlinking Protection in Hosting

It won't require more than a number of mouse clicks to activate the hotlink protection feature we offer even if this is the first web hosting account you use, since all our hosting include a simple and easy-to-use tool that will permit you to stop direct links to your content. The tool is a component of our revolutionary Hepsia CP, so it provides the very same easy-to-use point & click interface. After you log in to your account’s back office and go to the Hotlink Protection section, you will simply have to choose the domain or subdomain you want to secure from a drop-down list. If you want to switch on this service only for a certain site folder, you've got the option to do that. All websites with enabled hotlink protection shall appear inside this section and you can deactivate the service by selecting the checkbox beside the given site and clicking on the Delete button.

Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Servers

If you don't want other individuals to use your images on their sites without your authorization, you could easily switch on the hotlink security function, that's offered with all semi-dedicated server plans. As opposed to generating an .htaccess file by hand within the Internet site folder and writing some code in it, which is the standard approach to deny direct linking to files, you can use an incredibly simple tool, which we've incorporated into the Hepsia CP. From it, you'll simply need to choose the site which should be secured and our system will do the rest. Additionally, you can make a decision if the .htaccess file will be generated directly within the root folder or inside a subfolder, in case you want to activate the hotlink security feature just for some content and not for the whole website. Disabling it is just as fast - you'll only have to mark the checkbox alongside the particular site and to click on the Delete button.