Preventing bandwidth theft or hotlink protection using the .htaccess editor

Hotlinking or bandwidth theft

Bandwidth theft (also called hotlinking and leeching) is the direct linking to a Website's files (images, video, etc.). People often use an img tag to display an image from someone else's Web page on their own site, eBay auction listing, blog or forum message post. When people request hotlinked images and other files from your site, your plan bandwidth is used, giving this practice the name of bandwidth theft.'

Prevent hotlinking using the .htaccess Editor

Log in to your account Hosting Summary.
On the left sidebar, click on .htaccess Editor.
From the .htaccess Editor page, click on Manage Hotlink Protection.
Select the Enable hotlink protection checkbox.
To permit requests for the files directly from URLs or links in email messages, select the Allow direct requests checkbox.
If you want the requests to be redirected, enter the URL to which requests should be redirected.
To specify URLs allowed to access files from your site, enter each one on its own line in the designated field. The system automatically adds the main URLs for your plan.
Enter the extensions to protect from hotlinking, separated by a space.
Click Save to save your settings. Optionally, click Reset to return to the previous settings.
To view the current settings for a directory that has hotlink protection enabled, click the directory in the Directories with Hotlink Protection table.

Important: All subdirectories of the selected directory will inherit the settings for the directory unless you apply different settings to specific subdirectories. You can edit these settings at any time.