Editing Inline linking (section)

== Prevention ==
[[File:Oops! Hotlinking not allowed (Tahupedia.com).jpg|thumb|right|A placeholder image used when attempting to hotlink to a website which disallows it]] 

=== Client side ===

Most web browsers will blindly follow the URL for inline links, even though it is a frequent security complaint.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/20/vista_security_oversold/
|title=Vista Security Oversold
|access-date=2007-11-16
|author=Thomas C Greene
|date=2007-02-20
|publisher=theregister.co.uk
}}</ref> Embedded images may be used as a [[web bug]] to track users or to relay information to a third party.  Many [[ad filtering]] browser tools will restrict this behavior to varying degrees.

=== Server side ===

Some servers are programmed to use the [[HTTP referer|HTTP referer header]] to detect hotlinking and return a condemnatory message, commonly in the same format, in place of the expected image or media clip. Most servers can be configured to partially protect hosted media from inline linking, usually by not serving the media or by serving a different file.<ref name=bandwidth-theft>{{cite web
|url=http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/sitemanagement/bandwidththeft.html
|title=Bandwidth Theft
|access-date=2007-11-16
|author=Ross Shannon
|date=2007-02-26
|publisher=yourhtmlsource.com
|quote=Some webmasters will try to directly link to your images from their pages. Luckily, a simple configuration change provides the necessary fix.
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.alistapart.com/articles/hotlinking/
|title=Smarter Image Hotlinking Prevention
|access-date=2007-11-16
|author=Thomas Scott
|date=2004-07-13
|publisher=alistapart.com
}}</ref>

[[URL rewriting]] is often used (e.g., mod_rewrite with [[Apache HTTP Server]]) to reject or redirect attempted hotlinks to images and media to an alternative resource. Most types of electronic media can be redirected this way, including video files, music files, and animations (such as [[Adobe Flash|Flash]]).

Other solutions usually combine [[URL rewriting]] with some custom complex server side scripting to allow hotlinking for a short time, or in more complex setups, to allow the hotlinking but return an alternative image with reduced quality and size and thus reduce the bandwidth load when requested from a remote server. All hotlink prevention measures risk deteriorating the user experience on the third-party website.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Aleksandersen|first1=Daniel|title=Image quality degradation as a hotlink prevention measure and deterrent|url=https://www.slightfuture.com/webdev/modern-hotlink-protection|website=Slight Future|date=30 August 2016 |access-date=1 September 2016}}</ref>