Hotlinking or ‘bandwidth theft’ has dried up my 100GB bandwidth every month for the last 3 months. I thought that I have some kind of ‘Digg Effect‘ or this blog has been up to the new level (pro level) … but I’m dead wrong. The statistic is still telling me the same number of page views and visitors (even decreasing due to no post for 2 months), so what’s wrong??

Honestly, I never suspected anything bad at the first place. The log didn’t help much because of repetetive error (that have yet to be fixed) from one of my websites that fill up the entire log file. Until 1 day when I came across one article about the bandwidth theft. It subsequently reminds me of what is the most popular article in this blog. Why?? Because the content has the image that will surely turn every eye on it.

Well.. it is quite a shame to me that the most popular article here is not about tech and gadget that I admire most, but about ‘beauty girl’ !!! Yeah, and that’s not even true (prank email) facts. Whatever.. Ok, I’m just guessting this post is the culprit (because the good photos it has), and immediately implement the technique to prevent hotlinking.

Like a magic spell, the bandwith usage drop drastically the next day. So my guess is right, someone is linking to my images directly, and it must be from popular websites, otherwise, it won’t take up so much bandwidth from me. So I have solved my problem.. phuhh.

How to avoid hotlinking?

I’m not going to tell you how to secure your images (and the hosting), but my intention is to remind how important it is to do so. There are thousands of websites out there that provide comprehensive guide about this. Just Google or Bing it ok? For a starter, I highly recommend you to read this article from atlab. It is my saviour!

One more thing, if you use cPanel (as your hosting admin menu), you should also secure it from directory browsing and indexing.

Managing images

Small size images are still being stored locally in the hosting, but I have started using Flickr as my image repository. The paid version ($27) lets you upload unlimited number of images and videos as well as allow you to create as many folders as you want to organize the photos.

If you have more budget, you might want to view what Amazon S3 has to offer. The rate is usually based on the usage. Read some of the guide.

Moral of the story, if you use image extensively (or not) in your websites, make sure that you secure it from preying ‘evil’ that is taking every single opportunity for their own good and profit.