Resource Abuse Policy

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Resource Abuse Policy

Updated: January 2011

Any website on our shared servers that uses a high amount of server resources (CPU, memory usage, and network resources) will be given an option to move to a VPS Server or Dedicated Server. The abuse and misuse of shared system resources is a serious problem. Accounts on a shared server must share resources with other users so we must limit how much of the CPU and memory that can be used by any one account.

In all fairness, we cannot allow one or two clients to use all of the system resources on a shared machine and have all other clients suffer because of it. Excessive CPU & memory usage by one or more clients causes extreme slowness in all areas: MySQL, Email, HTTP and more. If the CPU & memory usage by a few clients gets out of hand, all sites hosted on the machine will return errors and not be accessible in any way.

We constantly monitor our servers for accounts that use more than their share of resources. The following resource usage policy has been implemented to protect the quality of service for our clients:

These resource allocations have been determined to be far more than sufficient for any shared hosting client.

There are special exceptions to these rules to be determined at the time we discover abuse. There are different combinations of usage that can create problems and other special cases. At any given time a server is unstable and an account is found to be the cause, we reserve the right to suspend the account to keep the server online and operating normally. If the usage is an increasing trend, we then recommend the user invest in a VPS Server or Dedicated Server so the website can grow at a normal rate without restriction.

Excessive amounts is defined as any amount that results in substantial degradation of server performance. HostMyDomainNow is the sole determinant of what constitutes degraded server performance.

Although our Reseller plans have larger disk space and bandwidth availability, these accounts are intended for the resale of small to medium sized web sites with average traffic loads. These Accounts are not intended for large, busy, resource intensive web sites and they will be suspended if found impacting server performance. Large busy sites, especially those using very large databases, usually require a VPS Server or Dedicated Server solution due to resource usage. Our VPS Server and Dedicated Server options are better suited for these type of sites since they do not impact other users.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

Flat File Database Driven Forums

Due to their use of flat files instead of databases, HostMyDomainNow does not allow the use of UBB or YABB bulletin boards. Use of these boards for large or very active forums, results in system performance degradation, and cannot be allowed in our shared server environment. HostMyDomainNow suggests using VBulletin or phpBB as a more efficient, database-driven alternative to these bulletin boards. Busy sites with large forums and data bases are not suited to a shared server environment.

Background Running Processes

Background Daemons in general are prohibited on HostMyDomainNow servers, including, but not limited to, IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX, XiRCON, warez sites and any other program that interferes with normal server operation.

Cron Jobs

We allow customers to set up cron jobs to perform routine functions automatically. Any client who schedules cron jobs in such a manner that jobs take more then half the time to complete before the next scheduled iteration, and more frequently then 10 minutes is abusing the cron system. Any automated processes that excessively consume resources and impact server stability may be disabled at our discretion by our technicians. Due to the impact on the server, running some automated processes can take up considerable server resources and in those cases, our technicians may disable the cron job.

Mailing Lists

We have a strict policy regarding use/spam on our network, but we do allow use of mailing lists within the constraints of our spam policy. However, sending thousands of e-mails off of a given server can impact the performance of the server. Therefore we limit the amount of e-mail allowed on our servers to no more than 200 e-mails per hour per domain.

Exploitable Scripts

Unfortunately, many commonly used scripts can be exploited to allow unauthorized users into our systems. Consequently we may on occasion need to ban and consequently disable these scripts. You can view the most current exploits on our Banned Scripts page.

SUSPENSIONS

In the event your website has been suspended for resource abuse (abuse that cannot be resolved by removing/changing a script, etc.) and you do not wish to upgrade to a VPS Server or Dedicated Server to accommodate your site needs, we will only release the suspension within 24-48 hours. This is to ensure the CPU intensive site slows down in traffic to avoid further damage and problems. A backup will then be provided of your files or you will be allowed FTP/cPanel access for a certain time period.

Inodes

Accounts on any shared hosting account may not have an excessive number of inodes. Any account found to have over 100,000 inodes may be removed from our backup system to prevent overload. Any account seen to be exceeding 150,000 inodes is at risk for suspension. A warning will be sent and if no action is taken to resolve the issue, the account may be suspended. Every file on the account is counted as 1 inode. This includes mail as well as webpage content.

Modifications to the Resource Abuse Policy

HostMyDomainNow hereby reserves the right to amend, alter, modify, replace or suspend this Resource Abuse Policy, from time to time, in its sole discretion. All changes to this Resource Abuse Policy will be effective when posted on the HostMyDomainNow website.

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