HotLink Protection with Plesk

A “hot link” is a file on your site loaded directly from another site. Sometimes this is okay, but it is generally acceptable only if you request permission. Hotlinking without permission steals your bandwidth (sometimes known as “leeching”). Images are commonly hotlinked.

Plesk allows you to configure hotlink protecting by file type, per directory, on a per-domain basis and is configured via the .htaccess file.

1. Log in to the Plesk Control Panel
2. In the Web Site section, click on the .htaccess Editor icon
   
3. Click the Hotlink Protection link
   
4. Click a directory to protect and click the Select button
   
5. The currently selected directory is displayed
   
6. Click the first checkbox if you would like to enable hotlink protection for all subdirectories (recommended)
   
7. Redirect requests to a URL instead of blocking requests, if applicable
   
8. To allow selective hotlinking, add the URLs in the final text box
   
9. Add file extensions, as applicable
   
10. Click the Save button
11. Directories you have configured are available in the Directories with Hotlink Protection section at the bottom of the page