|
Acceptable Use Policy
("AUP") for Dedicated Systems
ProVista Technologies has the responsibility to protect each client and provide them with the best services available. The following guidelines were designed in an attempt to ensure that we can do such.
ProVista Technologies will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of these provisions.
General:
Services provided by ProVista Technologies may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data, or material in violation of any United States Federal, State, or City law is prohibited.
The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless ProVista Technologies from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party.
Content:
Examples of unacceptable content include, but are not limited to:
Copyrighted media, without authority to distribute or display
Unlicensed applications
Cracking programs or key generators
Child pornography or kidnapping material
Fraudulent activity, phishing, pyramid schemes, chain letters, forgery, or impersonation
Terrorist propaganda, racist material, or bomb/weapon instructions
Virus/Virii, Spyware, Malware, or other infectious material
Material protected by trade secret or other statute
Additionally, ProVista Technologies prohibits:
IRC and associated programs (including psybnc, "bots", etc...)
Scripts commonly used for abuse, attacks, or flooding
Threatening, harrassing, or obscene content
Any proxies which do not require authentication (including open mail proxies, unprotected anonymous web surfing proxies, etc...)
Legal adult content is permitted on dedicated servers. The viewing/downloading or possession of such information/data by ProVista Technologies clientele is not governed by ProVista Technologies policy, and is at your own discretion/free-will, and may be governed by your state/federal government.
Links to unacceptable content, as defined above, are also prohibited.
Online Activity:
Any attempts to undermine or cause harm to the ProVista Technologies equipment, network, operations, or clientele is STRICTLY prohibited. ProVista Technologies will pursue legal action to the fullest extent for all abuse/violation of such.
Any activity deemed damaging or abusive, whether unlawful or considered to be detrimental to the operations of ProVista Technologies, is prohibited.
This includes, but is not limited to:
Denial of Service Attacks (DOS/DDOS)
Unnecessary Port Scans
Mail Bombing
Unsolicited Advertising via IM, Forums, Newsgroups, Email, etc..
Bulk Email: We understand that bulk email is an important mechanism for keeping people informed. However, spamming (unsolicited advertising), from the ProVista Technologies network, or spamvertising (unsolicited advertising of) sites hosted on the ProVista Technologies network is STRICTLY prohibited.
Legitimate bulk email must meet the criteria defined in our AUP (non-specific to dedicated servers)
If ProVista Technologies approaches a client for evidence of confirmation, this request must be honoured within 48 hours.
Failure to meet the acceptable criteria for bulk mail may lead to immediate termination.
Additionally, if such actions have caused mail servers or IP address ranges on the ProVista Technologies network to be blacklisted, ProVista Technologies reserves the right to assess a $100 charge to the customer account. This fee is set to cover administrative costs associated with removal from such lists.
Please make an effort to limit outgoing mail on your account to no more than 1000 pieces per hour. Large mailings are preferred to be sent from the hours of 12AM - 8AM EST.
Policy Violations:
ProVista Technologies may, at any time, audit systems for any data/activity showing potential policy violations.
Warnings: The ProVista Technologies Abuse Dept makes an attempt to contact the client, via email, when the first sign of a possible violation is noted. These alerts are a courtesy. Responses to such alerts are required. If an alert is received from any ProVista Technologies staff member, the client is responsible for acknowledging his/her understanding and citing any action planned or taken, within 24 hours of the notice. Failure to do so may lead to suspension. Repeated failure to do so may result in termination.
Note: It is extremely important to ensure that the email address on record with the ProVista Technologies Customer Service Dept is valid. This is the address used for abuse notifications and warnings.
Suspension/Deactivation:
If any terms or conditions are failed to be followed, the client risks service suspension or termination. ProVista Technologies reserves the right to remove any account, without prior notice. If ProVista Technologies deactivates an account for violating policy, the client will forfeit any rights to a refund. No refunds for advance payments will be granted for deactivated accounts.
Reactivation:
If a service is suspended, the client will be required to pay a reactivation fee of $65.00, and when applicable, to cover any administrative costs associated with the offense/violation, as determined by ProVista Technologies
Unauthorized Usage:
In any case involving unauthorized parties utilizing a ProVista Technologies service for abuse/violations, the client will be responsible for stopping all affected applications, until the source of the problem is found and corrected. ProVista Technologies may opt to disable all services until the client can perform such an investigation. If the technical support of ProVista Technologies is required for the investigation, the client agrees to compensate ProVista Technologies at a rate of $65/hour for such services performed, if such services are not included in the client's current service package.
In general, the client is responsible for maintaining a secure system. This includes, but is not limited to:
Requesting kernel updates
Applying application patches
Additionally, ProVista Technologies will not be responsible for securing third-party applications.
The client is expected to monitor his/her system(s) and/or service(s). Resource usage should be maintained within the level outlined in the service contract. Abuse caused by end-users or unauthorized parties may increase resource usage and it should be noted that overage fees may apply.
Certain clientele, such as those with fully managed support services, may be entitled to a higher level of support than those clientele with only basic management included with their service(s). The above unauthorized usage responsibilities may differ for such clientele. Further details of technical support provided can be found in the ProVista Technologies Managed Services Definition and Backup Policy.
Resource Usage:
ProVista Technologies will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of resource usage limitations.
Bandwidth: Overage fees will apply to any service utilizing more than it's assigned bandwidth allocation, except for those services advertised/sold as "UNMETERED". Overages will be calculated based on overall amount of GigaBytes (GB) transferred in a monthly period, unless a service is sold based on Megabits per Second (MBPS). Services sold by MBPS, will be calculated via the industry standard 95% method, unless specified in contract otherwise. MRTG or other bandwidth reporting is available upon request for all services. Client is responsible for all usage, and any corresponding overages fees, that result from a service that may be hacked and/or flooding. ProVista Technologies may require a deposit should a client utilize/require large amounts of bandwidth beyond their standard bandwidth allocation.
Port Usage: Basic Dedicated & Co-Located servers are installed on 100MBPS unthrottled ports, unless service is sold as a specified port size (ie...10MBPS UNMETERED) or specified/requested as a capped port. ProVista Technologies reserves the right to monitor network usage, and if a service significantly exceeds average usage, to throttle the available speed to conserve network resources and to prevent any large billing anomalies. This will generally not include short spikes in usage, but will include, but not be limited to, sustained transfers of significantly larger than average amounts of bandwidth. If at any time any client's data transfer rate affects other ProVista Technologies clientele, ProVista Technologies reserves the right to throttle and/or disconnect the service causing such a problem.
Filtering: ProVista Technologies reserves the right to block/filter or throttle ports and/or ip address ranges, at its discretion. This may include, for example, blocking Port 6667 (IRC), denying access from a known-spamming IP address range, or limiting the speed of point-to-point file-sharing programs (Kazaa, Limewire, Donkey, etc...). This may also include giving priority to certain traffic types, such as Voice-over-IP (VOIP) phone call transmissions.
Unmetered: Services advertised/sold as "UNMETERED" will not be subject to bandwidth overage fees. Bandwidth is supplied from a shared pool, and is not supplied as guaranteed/dedicated bandwidth. Burstable usage of the UNMETERED service/port is permitted, however, a service that has heavy sustained usage may have their port capped or be asked to upgrade to a dedicated service plan. UNMETERED service is supplied on a "best-effort" basis---which may result in some slowdowns during peak traffic times.
Backup Service: To maintain the integrity of our service, ProVista Technologies may relocate your backup service to a different server and/or IP address, to reduce the load on the server on which you are currently residing. Download/FTP sites, web-serving (httpd), and/or usage that results in heavy upstream/outgoing bandwidth consumption beyond that of normal backup operations is not permitted on the backup service. This service is meant for the backup/restore/sharing/storing of data/files, and not for usage normally performed by web/database servers.
Idle Timeouts:
ProVista Technologies or its service provider may disconnect any idle connection to the network.
Average timeouts are:
FTP - 300 seconds
Dial-Up - 10-15 minutes
Telnet/SSH - 2 hours
|
