Also known as a linked image, an external image is an image or graphic that a website accesses and displays from a different server or domain. An external image contrasts with a local or internal image, which is an image located on the same server as the main site’s files. Some webmasters link to external images to reduce hosting costs or to organize web file types on different servers.
External images can be accessed from the address bar of a web browser.
A server is a machine that provides data to other computers. On the web, a server contains information about the website, which a user can access by entering the web address into the address bar of a web browser. External images are typically used by webmasters and web designers who create websites made up of images located on a server other than the server that hosts the hypertext markup language (HTML) code that makes up the website. Some websites use a separate domain and server to keep website data separate from HTML files.
Linking to external images can be a problem for some sites that host images. Webmasters of other sites 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 linked website is displaying content that does not belong on the website and is essentially stealing bandwidth from the website hosting the image.
When a site uses external images without permission, the webmaster of the linked site does not have to pay to host the image, but the site that originally hosted the image may have to pay additional fees for web data, called bandwidth, that the site used linked visitors. Most hosting sites prefer that linked sites ask permission to use an external link or host the image on their own servers. To prevent nasty webmasters from stealing bandwidth by displaying an external image, some hosts use server programs that disable image display on external websites, often replacing the original linked image with one that reprimands the webmaster for linking or forwarding. the viewer to the original site to get the image.
Low budget webmasters can use external image links to save money on hosting services by hosting photos on a free photo hosting site. Free web hosting often has limits on the amount of data, including photos, movies, and HTML files, that a user can upload to their server. When a webmaster runs out of space on a server, off-site image hosting, either on another free site or a free photo hosting service, can ethically expand the webmaster’s available web space.
