Are you getting unusual bandwidth usage on your website that seems all out of proportion to your traffic levels? If so, you may be a victim of bandwidth theft. In general terms, bandwidth theft occurs when files on your site are being accessed remotely from another website. This is commonly referred to as hotlinking.
If someone on another website can see or hear anything on your site, then that site is guilty of bandwidth theft. The reason it is called theft is because you are paying your web hosting provider for your bandwidth usage. If 1000 other websites with lots of traffic are hotlinking files from your site, then your bandwidth usage will go through the roof and so will your web hosting bill.
Here are three ways that bandwidth theft or hotlinking can occur:
Images
This type of theft is the most common and is what most people mean when they refer to hotlinking. The image HTML tag is used to insert an image into a web page. It requires that you list the URL of the image file location. If you list an image location from a site other than your own, then the image on the other site will also show on your site. Whenever someone visits your page, the bandwidth necessary to display the image will come from the other website. When you do this, you are hotlinking the other site’s image.
Pdf, Zip, And Mp3 Files
If someone allows visitors on their site to download pdf, zip, or mp3 files by either clicking or right clicking a link, then you can hotlink this download link. This can be done by copying the link address of the download button or link and placing a button or link on your site that uses his link address. Finding a link address is easy because most web browsers have this capability. When someone downloads these files from your site, the other site’s bandwidth gets used.
An Entire Website
The iframe HTML tag allows you to embed a web page within a web page. It’s a kind of nesting of one web page inside another. The iframe tag requires that you list the URL of the web page that you wish to embed. If the web page URL is from another site, then you can show a web page from another site on your website. When visitors come to your web page they will see the other’s site through yours. They will be able to explore different pages and even view videos on that site through your site. However, the other site’s bandwidth gets used, not yours.
How do you stop bandwidth theft? The best way is to contact your web hosting provider and get expert advice. If you are like most business owners, you don’t have the time to become an expert yourself. If you have any questions about web hosting or any potential issues such as the one discussed here, pleasecontact us.