What is a Hotlink?
A hotlink is a direct link in an HTML file to a file on another server. While there are some legitimate uses for hotlinks, in many cases they are a source of irritation, because they can sap bandwidth in addition to violating copyright laws or placing media out of context. Images are most commonly hotlinked, along with audio and video files. There are a number of ways to combat unwanted hotlinks if you have noticed a drain on your bandwidth which you suspect is related to hotlinking. To understand hotlinking a little better, look at the image to the left of this article. This image is stored on the wiseGEEK server, and if you viewed the source for this page, you could find its location. If you displayed this image on your own web page by linking to the wiseGEEK location, wiseGEEK would pay for the bandwidth used every time the photograph loaded. Unfortunately for the would-be hotlinker to wiseGEEK images, wiseGEEK has protections in place on its servers to prevent hotlinking, but you g
A hotlink is a link through to a website that will help you with one of the activities in your book. We try to make sure that these weblinks are always live and are suitable for your use. Sometimes hotlinks are not available, because the website they link to is having problems. When this happens, we try to replace it as soon as possible.
