Johnny sent me an e-mail that was straight and to the point. The control panel solution, cPanel and enabling hotlink protection seemed to confuse him. So I told him I’d go through the process.
Do you want to keep others from stealing your web site graphics and pictures? The hotlink protection provided by your hosting account’s cPanel prevents other websites from directly linking to files on your web site.
Other sites will still be able to link to any file type that you don’t specify (for example, html files). You can use the hotlink protection to keep other sites from linking to your images, videos, and other files.
Protect Against Bandwidth Theft
If your worried about others stealing your bandwidth, this might be a good thing to look into setting up. If another site links directly to your images or other files, they will be using your bandwidth to display those files rather than theirs.
Want to turn hotlink protection on? Here is how you can get it done.
- To gain access to cPanel’s hotlink protection, click on the icon above the words “Hotlink Protection” on the main screen of your cPanel page.
- Next, enter the names of sites that you wish to access your files in the first field which already contains the name of your site (or sites). This system attempts add all sites it knows you own to the list, however you may need to add others.
- Enter the file types that you wish to let those sites access by entering their extensions in the blank field next to this text… Extensions to allow (separate by commas):
- We are almost done! Now enter the URL you wish to redirect links to that are not allowed in the blank field next to… Url to Redirect to:
- 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 check mark box next to “Allow direct requests”. Click on “activate” to enable hotlink protection on your hosting plan.
Your images and files should be safe now – and your bandwidth will remain your own.
