How to Set Up Hotlink Protection in cPanel

Hotlink protection in cPanel prevents a third party from embedding your content on their site and using your bandwidth to serve it. It mostly prevents other websites from directly linking to certain files, typically images, on your website. You want to prevent this if you have copyrighted images, or to simply save on bandwidth usage.

This security feature saves money and headaches for your business. This guide provides instructions on how to set up hotlink protection in cPanel.

Requirements

• A server running cPanel.
• Login credentials for cPanel.

Set Up Hotlink Protection in cPanel

1. Login to cPanel.

2. Under Security, click Hotlink Protection.

3. The first section gives you information about hotlink protection and the ability to enable it. The second section, Configure Hotlink Protection, allows you to configure the sites that will have access and the type of files to which you wish to block access. For this tutorial, we will walk you through configuring hotlink protection first.

4. First, make sure your own sites are listed under the URLs to allow access section, so you are able to hotlink to your images.

5. Enter all the file types you want to protect. Check the Allow direct requests box if you want to give the ability to manually enter URLs of a protected file.

6. Enter the URL you want to redirect to, for anyone who tries to hotlink to your files or images. If the configuration is correct, click Submit.

7. You have successfully enabled hotlink protection and see a confirmation message along with your configuration selections.

8. Navigating back to the hotlink protection page, you see the service is enabled. To disable hotlink protection, click the Disable button.

Wrapping Up

Securing your data from hotlinking is important. You want to ensure that your data is protected and your bandwidth is not used without your permission. Learning how to set up hotlink protection in cPanel will help you.

Existing Liquid Web customers with cPanel have 24/7/365 support for these operations. Get the managed experience on our VPS Hosting, Cloud Dedicated Servers, and Dedicated Servers with cPanel by contacting our sales team and getting started.