Hotlinking is an expression that describes the inclusion of images on a given website using direct links. In case you have website A, for example, and an individual creates website B and wants to add a number of images from your site, they're able to either save the images and then include them on their website or they may simply put links on their site to the images on yours. Thus, when a visitor opens site B, site B will steal traffic from your own website A, as the images shall load straight from your website hosting account. This method is oftentimes used for documents and other types of files too. If you want to prevent 3rd parties from stealing your content and from using your own web hosting account’s resources, you are able to limit their capability to use direct links to your files on their Internet sites.

Hotlinking Protection in Shared Web Hosting

There is a way of avoiding the hotlinking of your images by using an .htaccess file within the website’s root directory, but if you aren't very tech-savvy, we also offer a very user-friendly tool that will permit you to enable the protection with several mouse clicks and without writing any code. The tool can be accessed through the Hepsia CP, provided with all our Linux shared web hosting and the only 2 things which you'll need to pick are a domain/subdomain from a drop-down menu and if the protection must be activated for the main website folder or for some subfolder. Our system shall do the rest, so you will not need to do anything else by hand on your end. If you decide to turn off the hotlink protection option eventually, you'll just have to go back to the exact same section, to mark the checkbox beside it and to press the Delete button.

Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Hosting

We provide you with an uncomplicated solution to secure your whole content and even if you are not quite tech-savvy, you could take full advantage of it with just a few mouse clicks. The common technique to activate server-side hotlink protection is to set up an .htaccess file and to add a couple of directives in it. With the tool that you will find within the Hepsia CP, included with all of the semi-dedicated server accounts, you will simply need to choose the site that you would like to protect and our system shall set up the .htaccess file for you, including all the needed content inside it. You may also use this function for only one folder rather than the whole site - you just need to specify where the .htaccess file has to be created. If you no longer require the hotlink security to be active, you could disable it with a single mouse click through the same exact section of your CP.