Understanding and Using Hotlink Protection
What is Hotlink Protection?
Hotlink protection is a security measure designed to disable the external use of your website's resources. When hotlinking occurs, other websites link directly to media files hosted on your server, such as pictures or videos, and display them on their own pages. This is a form of unauthorized use of your content and consumes your server's bandwidth and resources without providing traffic to your website.
Why Enable Hotlink Protection?
If your website contains many valuable images or useful video tutorials, other site owners may attempt to serve these resources to their own visitors by referencing the URL of your files. They do this to save their own bandwidth and storage space. Enabling hotlink protection prevents this resource theft.
How It Works
When hotlink protection is active, the server checks the 'referrer' of a request. If a file, like an image, is requested, the server verifies that the request originates from a URL associated with your website (a local access). If the request comes from an outside or unauthorized domain, the file will not load or will display a custom error message instead. This ensures that the resource will only load correctly when it is being accessed directly from your website.
