Our web hosting AUP (Acceptable Use Policy)

In ordering a hosting account from SonnetUK, you acknowledge that you have read, understand, and agree to fully abide by our Acceptable Use Policy as listed below and also our Terms of Service agreement.

Resource Usage / Script Usage

Resources are defined as CPU usage, memory usage and available system resources. When an account is found to be manipulating resources, we may implement the following policy:
- When an account is found to be manipulating resources, SonnetUK reserves the right to suspend, terminate, or make appropriate changes to the account to prevent the account from continually manipulating resource.
- When the abusive account is a resold account of one of our reseller customers, we will make every effort to contact the reseller in advance, unless server stability is seriously threatened in which case we will carry out the above procedure immediately. At no time will SonnetUK contact a reseller's resold clients about their account.
- This policy is only used in extreme cases to prevent misuse and is used to ensure our servers are fast and stable at all times.

Clients are responsible for keeping any scripts used on their account up to date. Resellers are responsible for ensuring their resold clients keep their scripts up to date. We will post on our support site if a popular script has been found to contain an exploit. If clients do not update scripts when requested to patch security holes, we reserve the right to disable the script or suspend the account immediately until the script has been upgraded/patched.
If an unpatched/insecure script is exploited/hacked by any party, SonnetUK may charge a clean up fee.

Banned Scripts

The following scripts and programs are banned from our servers due to resource manipulation and/or the possibility of server misuse.
- Flat file CGI based forums / message boards, including but not limited to UBB, Ikonboard and YaBB (YaBBSE IS allowed as this is PHP based)
- All versions of Matt Wright's Formmail script. As the scripts included with CPanel are based on this, we disable them on all of our servers. Customers are recommended to use the latest version of the NMS alternative CGI form mail script, or PHPFormMail, the script we use ourselves
- IRC (Internet Relay Chat) scripts or bots
- Proxy Servers
- Eggdrops
- The Anonymizer
- Java servlets
- Hacking / spoofing / sniffing scripts / programs
- Spamming scripts / programs
When the abusive account is a resold account of one of our resellers, we will make every effort to contact the reseller in advance, unless server stability is seriously threatened in which case we will carry out the above procedure immediately. At no time will SonnetUK contact a reseller's resold clients about their account.

Unsolicited Email (SPAM) & Mass Emailing

SonnetUK operates a zero-tolerance SPAM policy and will react quickly and seriously to any reported violations.
Any unsolicited email transmitted over SonnetUK's networks is strictly prohibited and will result in instant termination without notice. This includes but is not limited to shared/virtual and reseller/multi-domain accounts as well as accounts resold by resellers.
Unsolicited email/SPAM that advertises or mentions a website hosted on our servers is also prohibited.
Any user found to be using Matt Wright's Formmail script or any other insecure form to mail script on our servers will have that script removed or disabled without prior warning.
As the scripts included with CPanel are based on Matt Wright's Formmail, we disable them on all of our servers. SonnetUK are happy to implement a safe form to mail script for hosting customers - simply submit a helpdesk ticket.
Low-volume mailing lists are permitted on our servers, providing recipients have subscribed or opted in to the list and clear unsubscription/removal instructions are included in every mailing.
Please refer to our mailing list/bulk mailing guidelines here before sending out any bulk mailings, either through SMTP or a mailing list.
In addition to unsolicited email/SPAM email, mass or cross-posting to Usenet newsgroups whilst advertising or mentioning a website hosted on our servers is also prohibited.
In the event that clean up fees, fines or charges are incurred by us following mailings from a client, these will be passed on to the client responsible. Where the account is a resold account, this will be the reseller.

Unacceptable Content

We will not tolerate the hosting of or linking to or otherwise referencing of the following types of material on our servers:
- 'Adult' content (see below);
- Any material which is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harrassing, defamatory, obscene, blasphemous, profane or otherwise objectionable in any way;
- Any material containing or encouraging the spread or creation of a virus, worm or other hostile computer program;
- Any material which promotes illegal activities such as hacking and cracking - illegal activity such as hacking and cracking that originates from your account or a resold account belonging to you is also strictly prohibited.;
- Any material which constitutes, or encourages the commission of, a criminal offence or which infringes any patent, trade mark, design right, copyright or any other intellectual property right or similar rights of any person which may subsist under the laws of any jurisdiction.
- Websites that condone, encourage or carry out the unauthorised collection of personal information, whether for illegal purposes or not;
- Any material that promotes illegal activity against or is damaging to SonnetUK.
We will be the sole arbiter in determining what is and is not unacceptable content, and we reserve the right to terminate any account without notice, if we feel our Terms of Service and/or Acceptable Use Policy has been violated.

Adult Content

SonnetUK have a zero-tolerance policy on adult content. If we find any adult orientated material in any account, including but not limited to explicit, pornographic, lewd, obscene or indecent pictures and other content, the account will be terminated without notice.
Links to such content are also prohibited.
If resold accounts are found to contain such material, they will be terminated and the reseller informed.

Overselling (resellers)

We allow our resellers to oversell their webspace and bandwidth allocations. However, we recommend that the total resold does not amount to more than double (2x) the amount allocated.
If we feel a reseller has oversold by too much, we reserve the right to request that the customer upgrades to a larger reseller plan.

SSH Access (resellers)

SSH access is not offered on shared/virtual hosting accounts.
SSH access is granted, on a case-by-case basis and entirely at our discretion, to resellers that meet our security requirements.
Additional identification or guarantees may be required before SSH access is granted.
Any account found to use a script which can be used to elevate privileges or enable SSH services will be instantly suspended.

Intellectual Property Rights & Copyright

The customer shall obtain any and all necessary consents and clearances to enable you lawfully to make use of all and any intellectual property rights through the services, including without limitation, clearance and/or consents in respect of your proposed domain name.

IN ORDERING HOSTING SERVICES FROM SONNETUK LTD, YOU SIGNIFY YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD AND AGREE TO COMPLY WITH OUR WEB HOSTING TERMS OF SERVICE AND ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY.

Sonnet Hosting | A division of SonnetUK LTD.
www.sonnethosting.co.uk | hosting.sonnetuk.net

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