Hotlinking is an expression that refers to the inclusion of images on a particular site by using direct links. When you have website A, for instance, and an individual creates site B and wants to include a number of images from your Internet site, they can either save the images and then add them on their site or they may simply place links on their website to the images on yours. Subsequently, when a visitor opens website B, site B will steal traffic from your own website A, because the images shall load straight from your hosting account. This approach is usually used for documents and other types of files as well. If you'd like to prevent third parties from stealing your content and from using your own website hosting account’s resources, you'll be able to restrict their capability to use direct links to your files on their websites.

Hotlinking Protection in Shared Web Hosting

It won't take more than a number of mouse clicks to enable the hotlink protection function we offer you even if this is the very first hosting account that you use, since all our Linux shared web hosting services include a very simple and user-friendly tool that will enable you to prevent direct links to your content. The tool is part of our revolutionary Hepsia Control Panel, so it provides the exact same intuitive point & click interface. As soon as you log in to your account’s back office and go to the Hotlink Protection section, you'll only need to pick the domain or subdomain that you would like to protect from a drop-down list. If you wish to activate this service only for a certain website folder, you've got the option to do that. All websites with enabled hotlink protection will appear inside this section and you can easily disable the service by selecting the checkbox next to the given site and clicking on the Delete button.

Hotlinking Protection in Semi-dedicated Hosting

If you have a semi-dedicated server account with us and you notice that somebody has hotlinked any of your images, you should use the security tool we have designed and included in our in-house built Hepsia hosting CP. When you activate this function, a server-generated image shall appear on the third-party website as a substitute for your real images. You will only need to visit the Hotlink Protection section in the Control Panel and pick the domain or subdomain your Internet site uses from a practical drop-down menu - it's as easy as that. When necessary, you will also have the option to switch on the feature for a particular subfolder and not for the website altogether. Deactivating the feature is equally easy - get back to the same section, check the box next to the particular site and then click on the Delete button.