Hotlink protection

Hotlink protection prevents other websites from directly linking to files (as specified below) on your website. Other sites will still be able to link to any file type that you don't specify below (ie. html files). You can use hotlink protection to keep other sites from linking to your images, videos, and other files. If another site links directly to your images or other files, they will be using your bandwidth to display those files rather than theirs.

What is hotlinking and bandwidth theft?

Bandwidth theft or "hotlinking" is direct linking to a web site's files (images, video, etc.). An example would be using an <img> tag to display a JPEG image you found on someone else's web page so it will appear on your own site, eBay auction listing, weblog, forum message post, etc.

Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferred from a web site to a user's computer. When you view a web page, you are using that site's bandwidth to display the files. Since web hosts charge based on the amount of data transferred, bandwidth is an issue. If a site is over its monthly bandwidth, it's billed for the extra data or taken offline.


A simple analogy for bandwidth theft: Imagine a random stranger plugging into your electrical outlets, using your electricity without your consent, and you paying for it.

How Do I know I am hotlinking?

This is how you might display an image graphic file in the HTML on your own web page:


<img src="image.jpg" height="350" width="200">


This tag tells the site to request the file image.jpg on the same server as the rest of the files on the site. If you were to hotlink an image from an outside server, the HTML might look like this:


<img src="http://notmysite.com/image.jpg" height="350" width="200">


This tag tells the site to request the image.jpg from a different server other than your own. Every time the page is loaded, the outside server has to use its bandwidth to display the image.,/p>

***************************************************************************************************************************

 

Enabling hotlink protection

 

Steps

1 To access Hotlink Protection, click on the icon above the words Hotlink Protection on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

2 Enter the names of sites that you wish to access your files in the first field which already contains the name(s) of your site(s).

3 Enter the file types that you wish to let those sites access by entering their extensions in the blank field next to Extensions to allow (seperate by commas):

4 Enter the URL you wish to redirect links to that are not allowed in the blank field next to Url to Redirect to:

5 If you wish to allow the sites you have entered to directly request files (view images or videos by typing their URL into a browser), click on the box next to Allow direct requests

6 Click on Activate to enable Hotlink Protection.

 

Disabling hotlink protection

 

Steps

1 To access Hotlink Protection, click on the icon above the words Hotlink Protection on the main screen of your cPanel interface.

2 Scroll down to the bottom of the menu, and click on Disable.

 

NOTE: The following will appear:

Hotlink Protection Disabled!

***************************************************************************************************************************