External images are graphics accessed from another server or domain. They contrast with local images, which are on the same server. Webmasters use external images to save hosting costs or organize files. However, linking without permission can steal bandwidth and result in scolding or redirection. Free image hosting can extend web space.
Also known as a linked image, an external image is an image or graphic that a website accesses and displays from another server or from a different domain. An external image is contrasted with a local or internal image, which is an image that is located on the same server as the website’s main files. Some webmasters link to external images to reduce hosting costs or to organize web file types on different servers.
A server is a machine that delivers data to other computers. On the web, a server holds information about the website, which a user can access by entering the web address into the address bar of a web browser. Generally, external images are used by webmasters and web designers who create websites built with images located on a different server than the server that hosts the hypertext markup language (HTML) code that shapes the website. Some websites use a separate domain and server to maintain site data separately from the HTML files.
Linking external images can be a problem for some websites that host images. Webmasters of other websites can program their sites to display images from the original site it is hosted on. This means of displaying images is often frowned upon because the linking site is displaying content that doesn’t belong on the site and is essentially stealing bandwidth from the site where the image is hosted.
When a site uses an external image without permission, the linking site’s webmaster does not have to pay to host the image, but the site that originally hosted the image may have to pay additional web data charges, called bandwidth, that the site visitors link used. Most hosting sites prefer linking sites to ask permission to use an external link or host the image on their own servers. To prevent obnoxious webmasters from exploiting bandwidth by displaying an external image, some hosts employ server programs that disable images from being displayed on external websites, often replacing the original linked image with one that scolds the webmaster for linking or redirects the viewer to the original site for the image.
Low budget webmasters can use external image linking to save money on hosting services by hosting the images on a free image hosting site. Often, free web hosting has limits on the amount of data, including images, movies, and HTML files, that a user can upload to their server. When a webmaster runs out of space on a server, hosting images off site, on another free website, or on a free image hosting service, can ethically extend the webmaster’s available web space.
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