Acceptable Use Policy for PlanetHosting.com

The Acceptable Use Policy below defines the actions which PlanetHosting.com considers to be abusive, and thus, strictly prohibited. 

The examples named in this list are non-exclusive, and are provided solely for guidance to PlanetHosting.com customers.

Please note that the actions listed below are also not permitted from other Internet Service Providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by PlanetHosting.com, or connected via our network. Furthermore, such services may not be advertised via deceptive marketing policies, as defined by the Federal Trade Commission Deception Policy Statement.

If your conduct contradicts our Acceptable Use Policy you forfeit any right to obtain any intellectual property under our domain.

This agreement is subject to change without notification.

General Conduct

Customers are prohibited from transmitting on or through any of PlanetHosting.com's services, any material that is, in PlanetHosting.com's sole discretion, unlawful, obscene, threatening, abusive, libelous, or hateful, or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. We will not allow adult oriented websites.

PlanetHosting.com services may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution, or storage of any information, data or material in violation of United States or state regulation or law, or by the common law, is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, or any other statute. PlanetHosting.com reserves the right to remove such illegal material from its servers.

The customer is responsible for keeping his billing data with PlanetHosting.com up-to-date and accurate. Furnishing false data on the signup form, or online application, including fraudulent use of credit card numbers, is grounds for immediate termination, and may subject the offender to civil or criminal liability.

The customer is responsible for the security of their website content. We can not be held responsible for lost, missing, or hacked data. It is the customer's responsibility to maintain complete backups of their data. Server and data backups are not for our customer's use. They are for server restoration only. It is the customer's responsibility to maintain their own backup of their site. Our servers are for presenting websites to the Internet population and NOT to be used as a storage facility for our customers.

Planethosting.com reserves the right to reject or deny any customer at any time under it's sole discretion. 

We can not issue a refund for any software or web site design projects purchased from us. The ecommerce and web business products and the web site design and administration services we offer are provided by third party vendors. We purchase them at your request directly from the vendor and we have no use for them and they cannot be resold. We purchase these products for the buyer when we receive the order. Ecommerce and web business products or services as described below are purchased through Planethosting only at the sole discretion of the end use customer.

If you violate our Acceptable Use Policy using any domain name we purchased on your behalf you forfeit any right to that domain name.

Any purchase of web business products and web design services from Planethosting.com Inc. are non refundable. This includes private SSL certificates, shopping carts, domain name purchases or transfers for SSL certificates, payment gateways, merchant accounts, promotion services, web design or web administration services, or any other outright purchases of equitable products. This includes any products sold through the Biz-Center shopping area, or any of the above listed products that may be included or sold with any of our hosting packages, and any web design or web site administration services.

System and Network Security

Customers may not attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the Customer, logging into a server or account the Customer is not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks.

Customers may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host, or network. This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.

Email Usage

Harassment, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages, is prohibited.

Customers may not send bulk unsolicited email. If a recipient asks to stop receiving email, the customer must not send that person any further email. Use your own judgment on this topic. If we receive complaints, we may terminate your account without warning to limit damage.

Malicious email, including but not limited to "mailbombing" (flooding a user or site with very large or numerous pieces of email), is prohibited.

Forging of header information is not permitted.

These rules apply to other types of Internet-based services as well.

Domain Name Purchase

We offer to purchase your domain name for you at the time of setup of your site. When you pay for your first month of hosting with PlanetHosting.com, we can put the domain name into your name. After the first year, registration is $25 per year. You will automatically be billed. If you decide to leave our service before the first month is paid, you will be obligated to pay $25 for the domain name. We will then transfer the domain name to you. Planethosting.com reserves the right to collect the cost of that domain name.

If you would like the domain to have a login that is under your control, you will need to create an account at any registrar and transfer the domain to your new account. We will approve this transfer as long as your account is in good standing with us.

Payment Details

Planethosting.com accepts major credit cards, checks, or money orders. No contract, and you can cancel at any time.

If payment is not paid in full by due date, Planethosting.com reserves the right to suspend or cancel your site from our service until payment is received. If payment is not received for an extended period of time we reserve the right to permanently delete the account and data from our servers.

All cancelation notices must be received via email from one of the emails that is associated with the billing/administrative account of a particular domain name. If you wish to cancel we must receive an explicit email stating so, including expressed permission to delete the data and account from our servers, or the account will be considered active.

Dedicated Server Addendum

All the above terms on this page apply to Dedicated Server customers as well. However, below is a list of extra conditions that apply specifically to Dedicated Server customers.

Hardware responsibility - if a piece of hardware we supply breaks under normal use, we will fix it. This includes the server or external hard drive and any of their connections. If any hardware fails due to blatant or extreme misuse by the customer then the customer will be charged for the repair. Hardware failure is extremely rare.
Server administration - this is the responsibility of the customer; you should make sure that a competent individual or individuals are available to administer your server; we are available for brief questions, general or brief and cordial help from time to time; our main focus is on hardware and connectivity maintenance and security.
Tech support - see above; additional or ongoing tech support optionally available monthly or hourly as needed.
Backups - servers are preconfigured for scheduled auto-backup of server data to external hard drive for extra redundancy and data recovery; backup configuration and/or schedule are not to be changed or modified in any way under any circumstances. However, you may retrieve data from your server's external hard drive.
Auto update of patches to operating system (Windows) - preset and not to be changed or modified in any way under any circumstances.
Hardware RAID 1 - servers have hardware RAID 1 for redundancy; if a drive fails the server will revert to the mirrored extra internal drive, this feature is preconfigured and not to be changed or modified in any way under any circumstances.
Passwords - only passwords specifically designated to the customer can be changed; changes to Planethosting tech access passwords is strictly prohibited under any circumstances; the server may be turned off and/or the customer may be locked out by Planethosting until such time we can ascertain the Planethosting administrative passwords or re-establish administrative machine login access. This includes any and all passwords for any system or program other than designated login access specifically assigned to and provided to you the customer. If access to the server has been restricted Planethosting reserves the right to retrieve assets consumed in any attempt to regain access to the server.
Firewall configuration (Windows) - preconfigured firewall for server and network protection; not to be changed, modified or accessed under any circumstances.
General - all policies for dedicated server is for the protection of your data, your service, the server, our network, and everyone's time. We are interested in things running smoothly with extreme data and server security and redundancy. We seek a symbiotic and friendly professional relationship with our customers with an emphasis on service and reliable performance and mutual respect.