HotLink protection prevents other websites from directly linking to files and pictures on your website. Other sites will only be able to link to file types that you don't specify.
An example of hot linking : Say I like the image on your website, and I want that image on my site. If I use the full URL of your image on my site, then the image is downloading from your site every time someone looks at my site. This means I am using your bandwidth for the image. When you enable Hot Link Protection, then I cannot steal your bandwidth any more.
To enable HotLink Protection,follow the below steps:
1. Login to the cPanel and click the HotLink Protection link under the Security section.
2. Click the Enable button on the HotLink Protection main page.
3. Make sure the domain name you wish to protect is in the box called URLs to allow access.
4. Direct access to certain file extensions can be blocked by adding them to the text field under the Block direct access for these extensions heading.
- When these file types are blocked, people will not be able to hotlink those types of files from your website, even if hot-linking is allowed.
5. We suggest you check the box for Allow direct requests.
6. Skip the Redirect request to this URL box and hit Submit.
You have now protected your images from being hot-linked. Just be sure that all of your additional domains are in the Hot Link list.
WARNING : If your images stop working, you may need to check your HTML source code for a common problem. Some website designers (or programs) may decide to use absolute path names for your images. That means, instead of a relative path like "/images/picture.jpg", it will use the entire URL like "http://www.yourdomain.com/images/picture.jpg". You must have that exact protocol and domain name listed in your allowed URLs ("URLs to allow access"). If there is any slight difference in the protocol (http://) or in the domain name (yourdomain.com/) between the allowed list and the HTML source code, then your images will be blocked.
To disable HotLink Protection, click the Disable button on the main HotLink Protection page.
Note : Clicking Disable may delete any entries you have added to the list of URLs to allow access. If you are disabling access only temporarily, you may want to save the list so that you can re-enter it later.
