Hotlink Alarm II

Oh, I'm so glad we have this one.

Instead of looking on, unable to do anything about hotlinking, we have real control. The ability to block hotlinks to ZIP files at willmaster.com is especially rewarding for us.

Some of our software is listed in various software indexes, you see. And that's good. An example is http://resourceindex.com/

New software indexing sites sometimes scrape established sites to seed their databases. Don't know what the established index sites think of that. But we don't mind.

What we do mind is if they link directly to the free software ZIP files.

Part of the reason for giving away software is to show off willmaster.com. When the index sites published a direct download link, we did not get that benefit.

For years, there was not a lot we could do about it.

Then, Hotlink Alarm was built. And all that changed.

Currently, when someone clicks on a link at another domain to one of our ZIP files, they get a ZIP file containing a short PDF. The PDF states, in essence, that our ZIP files may not be hotlinked to and to please visit willmaster.com to get the file.

(Some ZIP files we want others to be able to hotlink to. Those we authorize through the Hotlink Alarm control panel.)

The original Hotlink Alarm was a joint venture of Patrick Pretty, Willie Crawford, and us. We built the software. They promoted it.

When the joint venture was dissolved, the rights to the software stayed with us.

After the joint venture dissolution, Hotlink Alarm got an upgrade to be easier to use and named Hotlink Alarm II.

Hotlink Alarm II is the version currently available for download in WebSite's Secret.

The software can block pretty much any hotlink you want blocked. Hotlinking to ebook, music, video, image, and JavaScript files can all be blocked. We block image and JavaScript hotlinking at many of our sites.

At willmaster.com, the ability to block hotlinks to our ZIP files is a real blessing. Instead of being at the mercy of anyone who wants to hotlink to our download files, we now control the situation.

It's a good feeling.