What is HotLinking

[Angelica]

I just wanted to know what is HotLinking and how does it affect my domain ?

[ChristopherM]

Hello Angelica,

Originally Posted by Angelica

I just wanted to know what is HotLinking and how does it affect my domain ?

Hotlinking is a procedure where someone can link his site's URL from any other site using any images or direct link.

for example : You might have seen any ebay site's images on any other site other than Ebay's own site, but when you click on it, it will redirect your link to ebay's site. This is called as hotlinking.

It is not recommended for a site as it will un-necessarily consume bandwidth and also it will increase other's site SEO status. Else it may used for forgery purpose.

Regards
Christopher M

[Rachael]

Hotlinking refers to the use of a linked object or an image from one sire to another site. It is like a hyperlink to the resource on another server. The second website where the image or resource is transferred has an inline link to the site where the object is located.

[Juliane]

Hotlinking can be very effective if it is done in the appropriate way. It is important to carefully select the website links though. In terms of the domains, hotlinking does not affect any domains. The thing is that, you will have to mention all the website domains if there are images to be displayed. This is just a process of hotlinking and it has no negative effect on the domains.

[Email marketing Australia]

Thank you for giving us the definition of hotlinking. I really want to have this meaning and to know also how it can help my site.

[websud]

Hot linking can be disabled by using '.htaccess' file in the folder where the images/videos/files are stored .

It is good practice to disable Hot linking, or else, the 'source' from where the files are Hot linked will have to pay for the bandwidth which he is not using.

You can prevent the hot-linking of your images by creating a .htaccess file with the following content:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www.)?your-domain.com/.*$ [NC]

RewriteRule \.(gif|jpeg|png|avi|wmv)$ - [F]

Above rule will disable Hotlinking for images and videos

Note: Make sure that the .htaacess file is placed under correct folder of the website. If not, hot linking will get disabled for the complete website.

websud,
Dedicated Support Department

[jessica30]

Hotlinking means that you embedded or linked directly from your server (your website, blog, or forum posting, for example) an image on another server (godhatesshrimp.com in this case). I can't afford to allow that -- my hosting service charges extra for outgoing bandwidth above a certain limit -- so I have blocked hotlinking.

You are free to copy images and host them on your site -- that is, you can download them to your computer and then upload them somewhere else, such as to your blog or forum if it allows it, or to a free image hosting service

[amk2010]

Hotlinking (also known as leeching, piggy-backing, direct linking, offsite image grabs) is the use of a linked object, often an image, from one site into a web page belonging to a second site. The second site is said to have an inline link to the site where the object is located. i.e its a term referring to when a web page of one website owner is direct linking to the images or other multimedia files on the web host of another website owner (usually without permission, thus stealing bandwidth). This not only causes the other person to pay for the bandwidth of the hotlinked file, but often is intellectual property theft.