05 Aug 10 Bandwidth Theft Protection

Normally, a webpage contains images which are stored on the same hosting server which hosts the webpage too. Here, the images are referenced using relative URLs, i.e., /images/image1.gif.

However, images can be linked remotely also. In such cases, the images exist on a totally different host than the one on which the webpage (in which the images are called) exists. The images are linked using absolute URLs, i.e., http://some otherdomainname.com/pictures/pic.2.jpg. This is known as hotlinking. Since the image is requested from a remote server/website, bandwidth allocated for the remote server/website is utilized. If one indulges in such a practice without the approval of the remote server/website owner, this sort of linking can also be termed as bandwidth theft.

To assist you in preventing such abuse, Gossimer, LLC has provided a feature known as Bandwidth Theft Protection with its Linux Hosting Packages. Using this feature, you can prevent images linked to your website to be referenced remotely.

Using the Bandwidth Theft Protection feature

Follow the process mentioned below to enable Bandwidth Theft Protection for your website:

Login to your Control Panel and search for the domain name for which you have purchased this hosting package. Click here to read how >>

In the search results view, click on the domain name. This will take you to the order details view.
Click on Manage Web Hosting Service in the lower toolbar.
In the Website Management interface pop-up that follows, go to Manage Website -> Additional Tools -> Bandwidth Theft Protection.
Here, select Yes in the drop-down menu next to Enable Bandwidth Theft Protection.
The extensions – .gif, .bmp, .jpg and .png – are listed by default in the File Extensions to be protected textbox -
- If you wish to remove an extension from the list, select the same in the textbox and press the Delete key on your computer’s keyboard.
- If you wish re-submit an extension disabled earlier, simply type in the extension in the textbox.

Click on the Submit button to save your settings.

IMPORTANT In order to complete the action, the Web Server needs to be restarted. Random restarts affect other services running on the Server. In order to avoid this, the Server has been scheduled to restart at intervals of 20 minutes. Hence, the change might take upto 20 minutes to be effective.

Tags: Additional Tools, Bandwidth Theft, Bmp, Control Panel, Details View, Different Host, Drop Down Menu, File Extensions, Gif, Gossimer, Gossimer LLC, Hosting Server, Hotlinking, Keyboard, Linux, Manage Web Hosting Service, Management Interface, Pic 2, Png, Protection Feature, Remote Server, remote server/website owner, Server Website, Simp, Web Hosting Service, Web Server, Website Login, Website Management

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