Web Hosting

SquashBox Media Web Hosting Terms & Conditions

Our aim at SquashBox Media is to provide the best service we can to our customers, to help us achieve this goal we have set out the following terms of service.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you are up to date with all of our terms and conditions and their changes throughout the year.  However, any major terms and condition changes will be emailed to you for consult.

Hosting Account Creation & Support
Unlike many web hosting providers, SquashBox Media is run and maintained by a UK based company staffed by real people working real hours and although we allow worldwide accounts to be created, please bear the time difference in mind when you are emailing for support.  All support issues are dealt with by your own personal support engineer.  In your ‘Web Hosting Account Details’ email that you will receive once your first payment has been received and your account has been created, it will state the name and contact details of your personal support engineer.  This ensures that (unlike most web hosting providers) you are given personal service with an engineer that you will grow to know.

Content
All services provided by SquashBox Media may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any United Kingdom (or any other country) law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, material that is threatening or obscene, material that is “adult only” content, or material protected by trade secrets and other statue. The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless SquashBox Media from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party.

Adult Material
Pornography is prohibited on our web servers. This includes sexual content, or direct links to adult content elsewhere. This is also true for sites that promote any illegal activity or content that may be damaging to our servers or any other server on the Internet. Links to such materials are also prohibited. SquashBox Media will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this policy.

Background-Running Programs
We do not allow the use of background-running programs, including, but not limited to, IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX, XiRCON, warez sites and any other program that interferes with normal server operation. SquashBox Media will be the sole arbiter of what constitutes a violation of this policy.

Scripts
You are free to use any scripts you wish provided they do not affect the normal operations of the server and they are not mentioned specifically below:
Proxy Scripts
IRC Scripts
Anonymizer
Torrent Trackers
Hypermail
HiveMail and similar email provisioning scripts
phpShell and similar command execution scripts
Virus or any other hostile code

Scripts that are commonly known for causing server disruption include large cgi-based message forums, auctions, banner exchanges and chat rooms. In the event a script affecting server performance we reserve the right to disable the effecting script/account prior to notifying the customer.
You are responsible for ensuring that all scripts used within your account are secure and kept up to date, you agree to update/patch the software when the developers release new versions with security fixes to maintain the integrity of your web space.

System Resources
If a web site is found to be using excessive system resources resulting in degrading the service of other users, we reserve the right to disable the offending script or disable the account if required.
Cron jobs must not be set to run any more frequent than every fifteen minutes, customers found to be running crons more frequently will have their cron frequency edited and repeat offenders risk having their account suspended.

Intellectual Property Rights
Material accessible to you through our Services may be subject to protection under United Kingdom (or any other country) copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets or proprietary information. Except when expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use the SquashBox Media Hosting Service in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material, which you access or receive through the SquashBox Media Network. If you use a domain name in connection with our service or similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.

Network Security
Customers may not use the SquashBox Media Network with an 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, password cracking, probing the security of other networks in search of weakness, or violation of any other organization’s security policy.
Customers may not attempt to interfere or deny service to any user, host, or network. This includes, but is not limited to, flooding, mail bombing, or other deliberate attempts to overload or crash a host or network. We will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including co-operating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations. Users who violate system or network security may incur criminal or civil liability.

Defamation
Defamatory speech distributed over the Internet can result in civil liability for the defamer.

Refusal Of Service
SquashBox Media reserves the right at its sole discretion to refuse or cancel service. Violation of any of SquashBox Media’s Terms & Conditions could result in a warning, suspension, or possible account termination. Accounts terminated due to policy violations will not be refunded.

Spam Or Unsolicited Email
You must not use the SquashBox Media Network for the sending of spam, flames, mail bombs, or unsolicited email messages. Your domain may not be referenced as originator, intermediary, or reply-to address in any of the above. This prohibition extends to the sending of unsolicited mass mailings from another service that in any way implicates web sites hosted SquashBox Media Network

A message is considered unsolicited if it is posted in violation of a newsgroup charter or if it is sent to a recipient who has not requested or invited the message. For purposes of this provision, merely making one’s email address accessible to the public will not constitute a request or invitation to receive messages.

If you are found to have spammed we reserve the right to disable your account without warning. SquashBox Media reserves the right to determine what violates this policy. As such, any violation may result in cancellation of services without refund.

MailFoundry SPAM/Anti-Virus Protection.
Our MailFoundry service is free of charge to our hosting customers and is an opt-out service. All new accounts automatically have this service enabled, if you would prefer for your account not to be included please email our Support department. Should a customer who is not using the MailFoundry, be causing high CPU usage on our mailserver we reserve the right to activate the MailFoundry service on the account to reduce the CPU usage placed on the mailserver.
Using Email Forwarding/Default Address To Third Party Email Accounts

If you currently have in place email forwarding or your default address from our mailserver to third party email addresses such as Hotmail, AOL, BT, yahoo, we reserve the right to enable our Mailfoundry spam service on your account without prior notice. The reason behind this is due to the SPAM policies that these companies operate, they incorrectly block our mailservers resulting in problems for our customers emailing legitimate email addresses on their networks.
Here’s an example of how this happens:

Our customer sets up a forwarder from an email account hosted on our network to his/her Hotmail email account.
The email account hosted on our network receives SPAM which is then forwarded to the Hotmail email account.
Hotmail think that our network is the source of the SPAM as it came through our mailserver last.
This results in our mailservers being blacklisted across the Hotmail mail network, their blacklisting will stop you emailing a Hotmail email address from your account with us.
So it’s only due to the harsh and poorly designed spam policies these companies operate that we have put this measure in place, we do so to give our customers a reliable email service that is unaffected by blacklisting. By having our Mailfoundry spam filtering in place this cuts down the spam forwarded.

Please note that reporting our Mailfoundry digests as SPAM to these 3rd party email providers will result in your forwarders/default address being removed.

Abuse
Any attempts to undermine, slander, libel, threaten, or cause harm to a SquashBox Media server, customer, employee, or the company directly is strictly prohibited and is grounds for immediate termination without refund. In addition, we will pursue all attempts to the fullest extent of the law.

Indemnity
You shall indemnify us and keep us indemnified and hold us harmless from and against any breach by you of these terms of business and any claim brought against us by a third party resulting from the provision of services by us to you and your use of the services and the server including, without limitation, all claims, actions, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, expenses (including reasonable legal costs and expenses), howsoever suffered or incurred by us in consequences of your breach or non-observance of any of the terms of this agreement.

Payment Policies
All accounts are set up on a prepay basis. Although SquashBox Media reserves the right to change prices of accounts or services at any time, all pricing is guaranteed for the period of prepayment. Any changes to prices will be clearly communicated to customers prior to their application, with customers being given one month’s notice of any changes. Notice will be served via email, to the email address held on the SquashBox Media client account. Payment is due every month (calendar month), from the date the account was established. Customers will automatically be charged again at the end of the prepaid period unless confirmation of the wish to close has already been received from the customer (see service cancellations).   Payment is collected by the PayPal Subscription Service.  SquashBox Media is a verified business seller on PayPal.

Service Renewal
All hostings plans run on a monthly (calendar month) contract.  Each time your pay for your hosting account the service is renewed for another month.

Service Cancellations
SquashBox Media requires 30 day notice for any cancellations of service. To cancel your service(s) you must submit a cancellation request in writing (via email) and your service will be terminated 30 days later. We do not issue refunds for any unused time on your service should you choose to cancel your service before your billing date and if your payment is due within the 30 days notice you will still be charged.

Data-Transfer (Bandwidth) Overage
If you go over your bandwidth allowance you will be warned that this has happened and then have the option to buy more bandwidth allowance at £1 / $2 per GB.

Domain Maintainance
You are responsible for checking and maintaining your domain name.  Should it expire while being hosted with SquashBox Media to agree that you shall indemnify us and keep us indemnified and hold us harmless against an problems this may incur.

Disclaimer
SquashBox Media will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. SquashBox Media makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. SquashBox Media disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by SquashBox Media and its employees. SquashBox Media makes no “uptime” guarantees.

SquashBox Media perform backups of hosting accounts on a regular basis however they come with no guarantee. SquashBox Media can accept no responsibility for any loss of data or consequences arising from this. SquashBox Media always advises clients to back up their site data regularly for their own protection.

All communications (emails, verbal or written) are between SquashBox Media and the client. These communications are private and are therefore not to be shared with any other parties.

This agreement is made between the customer (as specified in the customer details section when placing your order) and SquashBox Media. If you are purchasing hosting on behalf of another party please ensure you specify the account owners details in the customer details section. SquashBox Media will only be able to communicate with regards to the account with the registered customer and not a third-party.

SquashBox Media wishes to emphasize that in accepting services, customers indemnify SquashBox Media for the violation of any law or SquashBox Media policy, that results in loss to SquashBox Media or the bringing of any claim against SquashBox Media. This means that if SquashBox Media is sued because of activities of the customer that violate any law, or this policy, the customer will pay any damages awarded against SquashBox Media, plus costs and reasonable legal fees.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you are up to date with all of our terms and conditions and their changes throughout the year.  However, any major terms and condition changes will be emailed to you for consult.

SquashBox Media makes no guarantees with regards to support turnaround times but we will endeavour to respond to all issues within 24 hours. There may be times due to unforseen circumstances (circumstances beyond our control) that support may take longer or is unavailable and SquashBox Media will not be liable for any loses incurred as a result of this.

SquashBox Media makes no guarantees with regards to web hosting uptimes. There may be times due to unforseen circumstances (circumstances beyond our control) that hosting may become unavailable and SquashBox Media will not be liable for any loses incurred as a result of this and no refunds will be issued unless in special circumstances.

Failure to comply with any of our terms & conditions will result in grounds for immediate account termination. SquashBox Media reserves the right to change, edit, or update the policies contained in this document at any time for any reason without notice.