Hotlinking is when another website shows your website's images (or videos, archives) by linking to them directly: the files stay with you and you pay for the traffic. With protection on, those requests get an error. In the dashboard: Hosting → website name → Security.
Turn on protection
- Open the Security tab and click Turn on protection.
- Confirm: the change is applied within a few seconds. Reload the page: the status becomes On.
To remove it, click Turn off protection.
What is protected
- Files with the extensions
gif,jpg,jpeg,png,webp,svg,mp4,mpg,zip. - Your website (with and without
www.) always shows them as usual. - Anyone opening a file directly (for example by pasting its address into the browser) can still see it.
Google Images and social media previews (Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.) also load images from your website: with protection on they may no longer show them.
Allowed domains
If another website needs to show your files (for example a second website of yours), add it under Allowed domains → Add domain. Enter the name only, without https:// or www. (for example othersite.com). You can add up to 20.
To remove one, use the ⋮ menu next to the domain → Delete.
If you turn off protection, the list of allowed domains is cleared.
The .htaccess file
The protection is a rule in the .htaccess file of the www folder, between the # BEGIN and # END lines of the block managed by the dashboard: do not edit that block by hand. Your own rules outside the block are left as they are (see FTP).
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