What is hotlink protection and how do I enable it?
Hotlinking occurs when another website embeds your images directly using your server's URL (e.g., <img src="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg"> on theirsite.com). This consumes your bandwidth and server resources while benefiting them at your cost. Hotlink protection blocks requests for your images from other domains. Enable in Connect Quest cPanel: Security > Hotlink Protection > Enable. Select file types to protect (jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp, mp4). Optionally redirect hotlinked images to a warning image. Via .htaccess: RewriteEngine On, RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$, RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https?://(www\.)?yourdomain\.com/ [NC], RewriteRule \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|webp)$ - [F,NC]. Allow exceptions: if you want social media previews to work (og:image), whitelist facebook.com, twitter.com. Cloudflare Hotlink Protection: Scrape Shield > Hotlink Protection. Particularly important for photography, recipe, and media sites where images are commonly stolen. All Connect Quest plans support hotlink protection at connectquest.co.in.