Hotlinking occurs when a website directly accesses, rather than links to, a file (like an image, or video) on a remote site. In other words if you have an images on your website and other webmasters choose to display those images on their own sites (rather than link to them) it could end up costing you extra bandwidth and server resources.

There are advantages and disadvantages to allowing other sites to hotlink your content. But this guide assumes that you have decided to not allow hotlinking from your website.

Note: If you have a custom .htaccess file, or if you are using CMS, blogging or other web software that utilizes .htaccess files this method is not for you, you will need to manually edit your .htaccess files to prevent hotlinking.

To prevent image hotlinking from the DreamHost web panel, navigate to the Goodies section > htaccess/webdav, then click on the domain you wish to edit.

Add the directory (the directory from your website you want to protect) such as /images/. Check the link protection button and add any extra allowed domains, if necessary, and submit the form.

Remember this is the simple method, for simple websites.