"Hotlink protection is currently enabled"
this will mean that only your website ( urls to allow access ) can call the images ( you can specify other file types in the "extensions to allow box" ) ..so if someone arrives at your page direct they will see your images ..but if you look at the google cache for example of your pages you will see your page ..and where the images should be you will see just the image areas defined but with red x's ( this is because google cache actually calls many things live from your server ( inspite of what they say )..but the text and the html code is indeed in their cache ) ..

if you toggle the hotlink protection to read ""Hotlink protection is currently enabled" ( the word enabled will be in red ) and then open another tab or window in your browser and type in your domain name into the address bar ..or a specific page on your site that has images ..you will see the page open with the images ..
if however you now do a search on Google for your domain in another window or tab ( depending on what browser you are using ) ..and click on the "cache" of your page in the results ..it will be your page ..with x's where the images ought to be ..

that means your hotlink protection is working ..

this does not however stop people from copying your images from their screen and using them on their sites etc ..for that you need to watermark them as "yours" or similar protection

the button and the GUI that opens from it in cpanel is basically just generating htaccess via a gui for those who dont know how to write their own ..you can still however make your own to protect certain folders on your site and leave others open to the outside ..but bear in mind that if you get your htaccess wrong ..you can break your site ..

IP deny manager also writes htaccess but for a different purpose ..

best use the cpanel options for now ..and hang around the apache forum and read if you want to know more

edited typos

[edited by: Leosghost at 12:00 am (utc) on Dec. 15, 2006]