Stop Image Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft

Flip the one toggle in ThumbPress. It writes and manages the referrer-checking rules in your .htaccess file for you - no manual editing, and switching it off removes them again cleanly.

Yes. Requests from your own domain pass the referrer check and load normally, with long cache. Only other domains are blocked with a 403.

Hotlink protection blocks external domains from loading your images directly, which can affect some services that fetch them. Enable it, then test your previews - and toggle it off if you rely on a service that needs access.

The rules are written to .htaccess, so they take effect on Apache and LiteSpeed. On Nginx, .htaccess is ignored - you would need the equivalent referrer rules added to your server config, which your host can usually do for you.

A 403 Forbidden instead of your image, so the offending page renders a broken image rather than quietly using your bandwidth.

Unexplained bandwidth in your hosting stats, or referrer entries in your access logs pointing at domains that are not yours, are the usual giveaways.

No - anyone visiting your site can still save what they see. Hotlink protection stops other sites embedding your files on their pages; pair it with right-click disable if you also want to deter casual saving.