Dot9 Webhosting, hereafter referred to as "Dot9", "We", "Us" and "Our", agrees to furnish services to you, subject to the following Terms of Service ("TOS"). Use of our services constitutes your full acceptance of and agreement to the below Terms of Service ("TOS").
1. Set-up and Contact Information
Order Processing
Your account and services will be set up after We have received payment in full. All new accounts and orders are screened for fraud prevention purposes.
Contact Information
During the account set-up process you must provide an email address that is NOT associated with any domain for which you are purchasing hosting services. Your contact information must be kept up to date and valid at all times. Failure to keep contact information updated and valid may result in the termination of your services and account.
Migration Service
Our website migration service is provided as a courtesy, and is available only to new customers who are moving websites from a server on which cPanel is installed. We make every effort to successfully move websites to Our servers, but We make no guarantees that a transfer will be either successful or complete.
2. Account Use and Content
Lawful Use Only
Our services may be used for lawful purposes only. Any use of Our website or services must comply with the laws of both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States Government. All illegal activity will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
Copyrights & Trademarks
You may not use Our services for any purpose which infringes upon any copyright or trademark. This includes but is not limited to the unauthorized copying of video, music, photographs, books, or any other copyrighted work. If you believe that your copyright or trademark is being infringed upon, you must report the matter to Us by following the instructions provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Notification Policy as is published on this website.
Unacceptable Uses
Unacceptable use of Our services includes engaging in, or the upload, installation, distribution or promotion of hacker-related sites or information, IRC bots, pirated software/recordings/media, proxy scripts/anonymizers, Internet viruses/worms/trojan horses/other destructive activities, escrow, lottery sites, high-yield interest programs (HYIP) or related sites, investment sites (Egold exchange, FOREX, etc.), AutoSurf sites, pyramid schemes, bank debentures or bank debenture trading programs, prime banks programs, hate or terror sites, muds/rpg's, harm to children, violence, hacker-related sites or programs, or sites promoting any illegal activity.
Adult Content
Adult content is not prohibited, but adult content that violates any policy set by Us within this TOS is prohibited. We welcome responsible, respectful and law abiding clients of all lifestyles and cultures.
Right To Removal
Any material that, in Our sole judgment, is found to be illegal, harmful or in violation of any Account Use and Content policy will be removed from Our servers. We reserve the right to suspend services during the investigation of any any reported or suspected policy violation. We reserve the right to terminate your services and account should We determine that you are in violation of any of Our Account Use and Content policies.
3. UCE & Spam Policy
ZERO Tolerance
We take a zero tolerance approach to the sending of unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or Spam over Our network. Very simply, this means that if recipients have not knowingly given you permission to send them email, you MAY NOT send them email. Both "Safe lists" and "double opt-in" will be treated as Spam. You may not purchase or otherwise obtain any 3rd party party mailing lists for use in sending email from Our servers. You may not host, or permit the hosting of sites or information that is advertised by Spam. You may not host websites or information for individuals, companies or domains that are listed in the Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) database. It is not acceptable to transmit bulk email through remote SOCKS, HTTP or other similar proxies which in turn make an SMTP (TCP port 25) connection to the destination mail servers.
SEVERE Penalties
Violations of Our UCE & Spam policy will result in severe penalties. Upon Our receiving notification of an alleged violation of Our UCE & Spam policy, We will initiate investigation. During Our investigation, We may suspend your services and account to prevent further violations. If We find you to be in violation of Our UCE & Spam policy, We may restrict, suspend or terminate your services and account. First violations will result in an administration fee of $300.00. Second violations will result in an administrative fee of $700.00. In addition to these administrative fees, you will pay research and clean up fees of up to $175.00 for each hour that Our personnel must spend on investigating and correcting the matter.
4. Shared Server eMail Limits
There is a 200 per hour per domain email limit, which is also applied towards mailing lists. You may not have any mailing list of 5000 or more recipients, nor may you split a list of 5000 or more recipients into multiple lists in an effort to bypass or work around email limits. You must throttle all outgoing messages regardless of the size of your mailing list. 1 email every 7 seconds (or more) is recommended. Any mailing list software installed or used on Our servers must provide the capability to throttle. Any bulk email or mailing list of more than 700 recipients must be sent during off-peak hours only. Off-peak hours are weekends (Saturday and Sunday), and 1:00am to 7:00am EST Monday through Friday.
5. Shared Server Resource Usage
Bandwidth and Disk Space
Bandwidth and disk space usage shall at no time exceed the monthly allowances provided under the hosting plan to which you subscribe, and the storage space used by databases and other files combined may at no time exceed your disk space allowance. In the event that you reach /your bandwidth limit, your account may be suspended until the next monthly bandwidth allowance takes effect. You may upgrade your hosting plan at any time.
Additional Usage Polices
a. You may not utilize 25% or more of Our system resources for any period of 60 seconds or more.
b. You may not install an interactive real-time chat application that utilizes Our server resources.
c. You may not run any streaming or gaming servers.
d. You may not resell or provide remote access to any CGI scripts installed on Our servers.
e. You may not run any stand-alone, unattended server-side or background processes.
f. You may not store backups of any files that are unrelated to a website under your account.
g. You may not run any software that interfaces with any Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network.
h. You may not engage in script sharing with other domains.
i. You may not run any bit torrent, client, or tracker.
j. You may not engage in any file sharing or peer to peer uploading/downloading.
k. You may not install or use programs that consume either excessive CPU time or system resources.
l. All crons must run at intervals of 15+ minutes.
m. You may not use an excessive amount of server resources (such as, but not limited to CPU time, memory usage, and network resources).
j. When using PHP include functions, you must must use the local file name ("include.php") instead of the URL ("http://yourdomain.com/include.php").
6. Support Boundaries
General Boundaries
We provide 24 x 7 technical support (except for short company meetings when we close our center). We limit Our technical support to Our areas of expertise. We provide support related to your server or virtual site physical functioning only. We do not offer technical support for application-specific issues such as CGI programming or HTML. We do not provide technical support for YOUR customers.
3rd Party Software
We do not support 3rd party software "add-on scripts" including any found in either Our scripts library or Fantastico! We do not guarantee that any third party software will function on Our servers. It is your responsibility to research software and compatibility requirements.
BETA Modules
We reserve the right to deny support on any BETA mode modules and software. We reserve the right to refuse to solve any issues caused indirectly or directly by such BETA modules and software.
SSL Certificates
SSL support is strictly limited to Our installing SSL sold to you by Us, for installation on one of Our servers only, and does not include support on setting up your software to function with the SSL.
Account Backups
We make shared server backups solely to aid in data recovery in the event of catastrophic server failure. You are responsible for backing up your own data as protection against your loss, deletion or overwriting of files. We make no guarantees as to the integrity of your data while stored on Our servers and We will not be responsible for data loss caused by either you or Us. All accounts include a one-click backup function that enables you to backup your entire site to a compressed (zip) file.
Abuse of Our Staff
Abuse of Our staff will result in either the suspension or termination of your services and account.
7. Domain Services
Service Limitations
Our domain registration, domain transfer, domain renewal, and domain management facility is made available to you on a self-managed basis. We limit Our services and support to maintaining the physical functioning of Our domain registration facility. The registration and use of your domain name is subject to the terms and conditions of use applied by the relevant naming authority. You will ensure that you are aware of those terms and conditions and that you comply with them.
Domain Transfers
In most cases, domain transfers add to the time remaining on a registration, and do not start the clock over. You acknowledge that time will not be added if the name is transferred within the first 45 days of the extended/renewed year, or if the extension would increase the total registration period past the maximum amount of time allowed by the registry. We shall not release the domain name for transfer away from Us if your account with Us has an unpaid or delinquent balance.
Free Domain Names
If We have provided you with a free domain name (new registration, transfer to Us or renewal) for use with your hosting account with Us, We shall not release the domain name for transfer away from Us until such time as 6 months after registration, transfer to Us or any initial or subsequent renewal have passed. Free domain names may only be pointed to or associated with accounts hosted by Us. We shall not release the domain name for transfer away from Us if your account with Us has an unpaid or delinquent balance. If you cancel your hosting account with Us, your domain registration will not be renewed by Us at the end of its registration period unless you have first paid Our standard domain renewal fee of $8.95 per year.
8. Money Back Guarantee
Web Hosting
All Web hosting services carry a 30-day money back guarantee. If you are a new customer and are not completely satisfied with Our services within the first 30 days of sign up (including the day of initial purchase), you will be provided with full refund upon cancellation of service. If We have provided you with a free domain name, $8.95 per registered year will be deducted from your refund amount, and the domain will be released for you to transfer away from Us.
This guarantee does not apply to add-on purchases, administrative fees, installation fees, domain name purchases, SEO and Submission services, SSL certificates, or any product or service other than the initial purchase of Web hosting by a new customer.
SSL Certificates
All GeoTrust SSL certificates carry a 7-day cancellation and refund policy. If for any reason you need to cancel your SSL certificate within the initial 7-days after purchase, you MUST contact GeoTrust directly. If you need to update your SSL certificate with new information, you will need to cancel your SSL certificate so that your refund can be applied towards payment on a new order for a new certificate.
We can under no circumstances issue refunds without first having received notification of SSL certificate cancellation and refund approval directly from GeoTrust. Upon receipt of notification from the certificate issuer, We will open a support ticket to inquire about how you would like for us to proceed (refund or new certificate order).
After 7 days, you can only have your existing certificate reissued - - no refunds or changes.
9. Price Freeze Guarantee
You will retain a 100% locked-in rate from the first purchase date of any Web hosting service throughout the life of your account (not including account add-ons or reactivation). This guarantee is contingent upon Our achieving and maintaining Our cost of service goals including but not limited to rates charged to us by Our suppliers.
10. 99.9% Uptime SLA
General Policy
If your website is not live and accessible to the public for at least 99.9% of any calendar month, you will be entitled to credit to your Dot9 account. The current refund rate schedule for Our 99.9% Uptime SLA can be found on Our website.
We cannot be held responsible for downtime resulting from any event or circumstance other than the failure of equipment that We operate. DOS Attacks, Internet NAP failures, congestion, and backbone failures are not within Our control. We cannot be held responsible for delays in the registration, transfer or propagation of a domain. Additionally, We are not responsible for downtime resulting from scheduled maintenance or the malfunctioning of customer-installed scripts or applications, unusual traffic spikes, non-payment of service invoices, or violations of the this TOS.
Credit Requests
In order to receive credit, you must submit a support ticket request to Our billing department before the 15th day of the month following the affected month. Maximum credit shall not exceed double the monthly service charge. Approval of credit is at Our discretion and is dependent upon justification and information obtained from Our technical support department. Only uptime as reported from the server operating system can be accepted as documentation of downtime/outage due to the fact that information obtained from third party monitoring services is rarely accurate.
11. Payment and Authorization
General Policy
You acknowledge that by accepting this agreement you authorize Us to automatically collect payment on all invoices for services provided to you from any credit card, debit card, bank account or security deposit you place on file with Us. Payment on any and all invoices issued by Us will be due and may be collected on by Us immediately upon invoice issuance.
Web Hosting
All Web hosting services are invoiced on a recurring basis, based upon the subscription term requested by you at time of first purchase, until such time as you cancel your account with Us. Add-ons, overage fees, and late fees may be invoiced separately and more frequently.
12. Web Hosting Cancellations
You may request that your service be canceled at any time, but a support ticket request for cancellation must be submitted to Us a minimum of five (5) days in advance of scheduled renewal. If a cancellation request is received within 5 days before scheduled renewal, the cancellation will fail and any related invoice(s) will be collected upon. Service will remain active until the end of the renewed subscription period.
13. Failure to Pay
General Policy
We may temporarily deny services or terminate this agreement upon your failure to pay charges when due. Such termination or denial will not relieve you of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges. You agree to pay all processing, collections and attorney fees related to the collection of any unpaid invoices.
Web Hosting
Failure to remit payment for five (5) consecutive days (including the renewal date) will result in suspension of access to your services. Failure to remit payment for ten (10) consecutive days (including the renewal date) will result in a $35.00 late fee. Any data remaining on Our servers after fifteen (15) days of non-payment will be destroyed for security and privacy reasons.
14. Refunds and Disputes
You acknowledge that all payments made to Us are non-refundable. All overcharge or billing disputes must be reported to Our billing department via support ticket within 45 days after the date on which the disputed charge originally occurred. If you dispute a charge through your credit card company, that We at Our sole discretion determine to be a valid charge under the provisions of this TOS, you agree to pay Us an administrative fee of $125.00 in addition to any payment due for services.
15. Miscellaneous Provisions
a. A waiver by Us of any breach of any provision of this TOS by you shall not operate as or be construed as a continuing or subsequent waiver thereof, or as a waiver of any breach of any other provision thereof.
b. You are fully responsible for the actions of all users of your services and account including (but not limited to) employees, customers, and website visitors.
c. You will not transfer or assign this agreement without Our prior written consent. We may assign the agreement at anytime without consent from or notice to you. We reserve the right to cancel your rights under this TOS at anytime without further obligation.
d. We disclaim any responsibility for the content posted on websites that link to Our website. We disclaim any responsibility for the content posted on websites that are linked to from Our website. Outbound links are provided for navigational purposes only.
e. We are not responsible for any damages that you, your website or your business may suffer. We do not make implied or written warranties for any of Our services. We deny any warranty or merchantability for any specific purpose. This includes any failure to achieve target results, and loss of data or damages resulting from delays, non-delivery, wrong delivery, damage or deletion of files, hardware failure, and any and all service interruptions caused by Us.
f. We reserve the right to refuse or terminate your services or account at any time, without notification to you.
g. Failure to respond to any email communication issued by Our abuse department within 48 hours may result in the immediate termination of your services and account.
h. We reserve the right to upgrade, remove, discontinue or change any hardware, software, components, or other elements of Our services at any time.
i. We are and will be sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this TOS. We reserve the right to revise Our policies and TOS at any time without notice.
16. Indemnification
We wish to emphasize that in agreeing to Our TOS, you indemnify Us of any violation of this TOS that results in loss to Us or the bringing of any claim against Us by any third party. If We are sued because of your activity, or because of one of your service or account user's activity, you agree to pay any damages awarded against Us, plus all related costs and attorney's fees.
17. Governing Law and Severability
This TOS is governed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, USA, without regard to its choice of law rules. By agreeing to this TOS, you agree that all disputes arising from the use of Our services shall be resolved under the sole jurisdiction and venue of the courts of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, USA. Any provisions contained in this TOS that are found to be in violation of, or in contradiction to, current laws will be considered void. Voided or severed portions of this TOS shall not have any bearing on the remainder of this TOS. Use of Our services is prohibited in any legal jurisdiction that does not recognize this TOS as legal and binding.
