Terms and Conditions of Service

Who are Hostroute and what is the Service that we provide?

Our trading name is Hostroute ("We"). It is a trading name of UK Webhosting Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paragon Internet Group Limited. UK Webhosting Limited is a Company incorporated in the United Kingdom under Company Number: 04977925. The registered office address of UK Webhosting Ltd is 23 Orchid Close, Eastbourne, BN23 8DE. We are an international Internet hosting service, transacting business in Euros, British Pounds and US dollars. This means that we run a web hosting service for individuals and organizations to host their websites on our servers, providing Internet connectivity and data centre space; Domain name registration, renewal and DNS hosting services bundled together. Our partners for domain registration are Tucows; eNom; CoCCA; Nominet and CentralNic and links to their terms and conditions are as below:

Issuance and installation of SSL certificates. We are resellers for Globalsign and the certificates are paid for and processed through us. Here is a link to the Globalsign Terms and Conditions of use: http://www.globalsign.co.uk/repository/. By making your payment thereby ordering our Service you are entering into a contract with us and these Terms and Conditions are the basis upon which we provide you with the Service. If you do not accept these Terms and Conditions, please do not make payment to use our Service. If you are reselling our services then these terms and conditions also apply to your customers so you should make them aware of them.

Our service and the content of this website is intended for use only by residents of member states within the European Union and the United States of America. None of the services or products referred to is available to persons resident in any state or territory where such products or services are prohibited by local law or regulation.

1. Definitions

In these Terms and Conditions the following words shall have the following meanings. "We" or "Us" shall mean Hostroute. "You" or "Your" shall mean the Subscriber or Customer. "Agreement" shall mean any contract for the provision of Services by the us to you which incorporates these Terms and Conditions. "General Conditions" shall mean the Ofcom General Conditions. As at 30 July 2010. "Act" shall mean the Communications Act 2003. "Consumer Cancellation laws" shall mean Directive No. 2000/31/EC and the Consumer (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. "International Copyright Laws" shall mean The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty adopted in 1996 an international treaty on copyright law adopted in the United States as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and in the European Union Directive 2001/29/EC known as the information society directive. "UK Copyright Law" shall mean the Digital Economy Act 2010.

2. Your Obligations to Us

Copyright

2.1. According to International Copyright Laws, unless you have permission of the copyright holder, you may not reproduce any web pages and/or store any copyright material in hard drive or on disk; make available any copyright work to the public over the Internet; and distribute copyright works on the Internet. UK Copyright Law states that copyright holders may send us lists of Internet protocol addresses which they believe have infringed their copyrights along with a "copyright infringement report". If your IP address is on this list and you are downloading copyright material illegally then, we will have to notify you. The standard of proof that you are engaged illegal copyright downloading is set out in Ofcom's Regulatory Code. The copyright holder may send us a request for a "copyright infringement list". We would then send them an anonymous list of all subscribers who have reached the criteria of illegal downloading in the Ofcom Code. At that stage the copyright holder may approach a judge for court order for disclosure of the identity of the subscriber or subscribers that are on the "list" and begin normal copyright proceedings against them.

2.1.1. In the event that we are added as a Defendant in a any copyright proceedings then provided we have complied with all prevailing copyright laws then you shall fully indemnify and hold us harmless against all actions, claims, demands, costs, charges and expenses as a result of the infringement of copyright in respect of the Service.

Acceptable use

2.2. General Policy

2.2.1. When we have credible evidence that you are using the Service for suspected illegal activity we may use the investigation lock on your account while we investigate the report. Once the investigation has been carried out, we may then either: unlock the account or close down the account. You shall not be entitled to a refund if your account is closed because it is being used for illegal activity.

2.2.2. Situations in which we will consider locking your account: are when we receive notification from the police that the account is being used for criminal activity; we become aware of facts that indicate credibly that the account is being used for criminal activity; we receive an allegation with credible supporting information and evidence that the account is being used for criminal activity; we receive multiple allegations from separate parties that the domain name is being used for criminal activity; the account is listed on our Phishing feed.

2.2.3. We will not suspend or lock an account easily. We are aware that a person with a grievance against you may seek to disrupt your business by alleging that your account is being used illegally. We will only act on substantial credible evidence.

2.2.4. If a subscriber or any third party should have a complaint or wish to make a report of our Service being used for illegal activity then they may do so by writing to us at the Company's address shown in Clause 1. or by entering a ticket in http://helpdesk.hostroute.net.

2.3. What is illegal activity

2.3.1. The following list is not exhaustive:

  • material we judge to be threatening or obscene
  • material protected by trade secret and other statute
  • pornography, including sites that links to such content
  • sex-related merchandising, including sex toys and sites that link to such content
  • escort services or anything related to prostitution
  • pirated software, also known as warez
  • hacker programs or archives, including sites that link to such content
  • hate propaganda
  • products designed to defraud others, e.g. satellite hacking equipment
  • content that may be damaging to our servers or any other server on the internet
  • Web sites promoted by spam or involved in spamming or selling spam related software or bulk email lists
  • IRC or IRC bots

If you are unsure whether or not your site falls into these categories feel free to contact us with a description before you sign up for an account or publish material as an existing customer.

2.4. Email & Spam

2.4.1. We do not permit:

  • The sending of spam through our servers
  • Sending out spam through another providers mail server which includes links to web pages or email addresses hosted on our servers
  • Web sites promoted by spam or involved in spamming or selling spam related software or bulk email lists
  • As delegated by our upstream providers, any sites using spam, or involved in the selling of spam related software or bulk email content will be closed.
  • If you spam, we will see you doing it, your account will be terminated and you will not get a refund.
  • If you run a mailing list all the people you mail must have opted into the list. The list must not have been obtained from a third party. Your list server must use a system where an email is sent to the user when they sign up and they have to reply or click on a link to confirm their email address. This is known as double opt in. The mailman program we provide with some hosting packages matches these requirements, as do many other mailing list systems. You must honor all unsubscribe requests within 24 hours.

If we receive a spam complaint about your account we will:

  • Suspend your account to prevent any further violations
  • Contact you to inform you of our reinstatement policy (see below)
  • Either reactivate the account or terminate it depending on your response

2.4.2 Bulk email

We understand that bulk email is an important mechanism for keeping people informed. However, spamming (unsolicited advertising), from the Hostroute network, or spamvertising (unsolicited advertising of) sites hosted on the Hostroute network is strictly prohibited.

Legitimate bulk email meets the following criteria:

  • The recipient has confirmed his willingness to be added to the distribution list of the mailing, by responding to a verification email, or, otherwise, verifiably confirming permission. (Evidence of such must be retained and available by request.)
  • Messages include: Valid headers, removal instructions, and information on the method by which the subscribed address was obtained.
  • All bulk email senders must post privacy policies, in association with the sending domains. Co-registration or list sharing is prohibited. If Hostroute approaches a client for evidence of confirmation, this request must be honoured within 48 hours.
  • Please read the Spamhaus mailing list guidelines which give more detail on verification.
  • 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 Hostroute network to be blacklisted, Hostroute 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 to 8AM.

2.4.3. Email SPAM/Abuse reinstatement policy

If an account has been suspended for spam or abuse it will only be reinstated if the customer sends a reinstatement request to us by help desk ticket or email.

The reinstatement request must, in the customer's own words, explain:

  • Why the SPAM incident or other abuse incident occurred.
  • If applicable, display understanding of why mass mailing is forbidden.
  • Commit to the incident not occurring again.
  • Hostroute will be the sole arbiter in making a decision as to whether or not the account should be reinstated.

In making a decision we shall take into consideration:

  • The authenticity of the reinstatement request (is it really from the owner of the account which it purports to be).
  • The nature of the response and the understanding and commitment exhibited therein.
  • The history of abuse on that domain.
  • To the extent known, the history of abuse by that customer across different domains.
  • Communication of the decision will be sent to the email from which the customer's reinstatement request was sent.

2.5. Server Protection

2.5.1. Each server has a limited amount of processing power and memory. We have found most of our customers to stay within reasonable limits, but sometimes people do cause problems for other users by using too many resources.

If you are a shared hosting customer you may not:

  • Provide hosting for third parties, unless you have a proper reseller account.
  • Link to CGI scripts running on your account from other domains (e.g. banner exchanges).
  • Use more than 10% of system resources on the server.
  • Send more than 1000 emails in any hour.
  • We do not allow clients to install their own CGI or PHP chat rooms. These tend to be a large drain on system resources and we cannot allow it as an account option. However, we provide chat systems with some hosting accounts which you may use free of charge.
  • Bulletin boards are permitted, provided they stay within the 10% server usage limit explained above.

We allow you (subject to a suitable hosting plan) to run programs which run continually in the background (known as cron jobs). However, these must not overload the server or affect other users’ sites. We will remove cron jobs that are affecting server performance.

2.5.2. 10% server resources rule

If your account regularly uses more than 10% of the server's processing resources we will suspend the domain account involved and send an email to the billing email address we have on file. This protects you because it means we will be removing other accounts which could jeopardize the operation of your web site.

The most common reasons for sites using abnormal amounts of resources are:

  • Poorly coded bulletin boards using flat file databases or bulletin boards which have been exploited by link spammers.
  • Abnormally large amounts of incoming email, typically false bounce notifications when a customer's email address has been spoofed by a spammer.
  • Abnormal amounts of incoming spam.
  • We may offer dedicated server hosting for an additional charge or you may agree to remove the aspect of your account which is causing the problem. If no agreement is possible or your account is simply not capable of being hosted on a shared server we will send a backup of all the site data including databases on an IBM compatible PC format CD by postal delivery. We may, at our discretion, make available a downloadable copy of the account data for a period of 24 hours.
  • In the case of a suspension for processor usage there will be no refund of any prepaid hosting fees, owing to the possible loss of revenue or customers that breaching this rule is likely to cause.

2.5.3. Specific programs/scripts not permitted

We do not permit the use of:

  • The webmail part of PHP nuke or any of its derivatives as this allows anyone to send out email and will be abused by spammers.
  • Formmail.pl from Matts Script archive. We have a secure version already installed on our servers, use it instead.
  • Formmail.php. Use the secure formmail.cgi which we have already installed on the server.
  • Telnet / SSH / shell access
  • Hostroute provides SSH (secure telnet) access on some accounts on request. SSH access is provided for the purpose of testing scripts and carrying out site maintenance. It is not provided for any other purpose.
  • There is no warranty of any kind should SSH fail to function for off server connections or activities. We reserve the right to withdraw SSH access at any time without notification. Customers are not permitted to run CGI or PHP shell emulation programs.

2.5.4. Server abuse

Any attempt to undermine or cause harm to a server, or customer, of Hostroute is strictly prohibited. Offenders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

2.6. Threats and Abuse

In the past some subscribers have made unacceptable threats against Hostroute, its staff or networks. We take these sort of threats very seriously and will bring civil harassment proceedings on behalf of those members of staff that are being abused.

2.7. Licenses and Approvals

You must ensure that at all times you comply with all relevant laws and obligations including but not limited to any license under the Act which is applicable to you and all related laws in any territory in which you are situated or in which your website may be accessed or made available. We will have no liability under this Agreement for your failure to comply with its obligations in any case where you do not comply with any such relevant laws or obligations or do not obtain such consents or approvals.

3. Our Obligations to You

3.1. Registration of Domain name(s)

Where domain name(s) have been registered as part of the service provided by us, you are bound by additional terms and conditions which were displayed during the registration process.

Some of these are enforced by the different domain name(s) registries and you should be aware that you may have a contract with them as well as with us. We register all domains with the customer as registrant. Hostroute may be listed as technical, admin (and sometimes billing) contact for some domain names but normally we enter the customer's details into all of these fields as well. These contact details can be changed for most domains by going to https://core.hostroute.com but some registries may restrict the fields that can be changed.

3.1.1. Domain name(s) registration fees are not refundable because the registries will not refund us. It is your responsibility to ensure that all names are spelled correctly prior to ordering domain names.

3.2. Change of domain name(s)

3.2.1. Domain name(s) cannot be changed once they are registered. This is because the domain registries will not refund us once domain name(s) are registered.

3.2.2. We can change the domain name(s) associated with your hosting account but you will need to register the new domain name(s) first. Changing the domain name(s) may require your account to be deleted and it may cause disruption to your web site. The old domain name(s) will stop working. We reserve the right not to allow domain changes.

3.2.3. You acknowledge that any disputes arising out of the use of your domain name(s) requested by you will be resolved for .uk domains in accordance with the Nominet UK Dispute Resolution Service which can be accessed at http://www.nic.uk/ref/drs.html and for .com, .net and .org as well as .info, .biz and .name domains in accordance with the UDRP which can be accessed at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm which may impose restrictions on the termination or transfer of a domain name(s) with its current host during or pending the settlement of such a dispute. We agree to act as mediator on your behalf.

3.2.4. So long as there is no conflict with another provision in these terms and conditions then you shall be permitted to transfer you domain name(s) to another host other than us upon termination of this Agreement.

3.2.5. You acknowledge and agree that Hostroute or its agents, assignees or licensees may, upon registration of your domain name(s), associate any data of any kind, in our sole discretion, with the Domain Name(s) registered in association with Your Web Site or any URL incorporating said Domain Name(s) until you replace such data with the Web Site. This paragraph shall apply to any and all web pages generated by us, whether in connection with HTML standard response codes or otherwise, including but not limited to 404 error pages.

3.2.6. You agree and acknowledge that registration and use of the domain name is subject to the terms and conditions of the registry/registrar. By submitting the order form to us, you agree to be bound by any such policies, rules and/or other terms and conditions and to fully and effectively indemnify us in respect of all losses, costs, expenses or liability suffered or incurred by us as a result of or arising out of any breach of these policies, rules and/or other terms and conditions. It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with the policies, rules and other terms and conditions of the registry/registrar. If there is any conflict between this Agreement and the terms and conditions of the registry/registrar, the terms and conditions of the registry/registrar will take precedence.

3.3. Internet Connectivity

3.3.1. None of the provisions of this Clause 3.3 shall affect your statutory rights under the Cancellation Laws.

3.3.2. Reliability Level

There is no such thing as a 100% reliable Internet service. In order to improve reliability we would have to provide several servers where one would do or duplicate essential connections through physically diverse routes, so that damage to one route will not affect the alternate. However, doing this can be expensive, because more equipment must be purchased or rented, the costs for housing machines are higher, as are the electricity bills.

These costs will all need to be passed on to you. We do however strive to provide an Internet service to a high level of reliability that is affordable to you and so have designed our internal network to a reliability level of 99.9%. This means that the service will be unavailable for no more than 8 hours per year or 43.75 minutes a month.

3.3.3. We do run checks to see that your Internet connection is available and ask that you do the same and inform us immediately if there is a problem.

3.3.4. Acts and omissions of other telecommunications operators such as BT outside our reasonable control are force majeure and we cannot be held responsible for this.

3.4.1 Reliability Level Guarantee

3.4.2. Our service level, is backed by guarantee (credits at a rate of 5% to your account for every hour the site is down beyond the agreed amount of 43.75 minutes a month). In order to receive credit for your down time, you must submit a request within 30 days of the occurrence.

3.4.3. Some of our hosting plans are supplied with a 30 day money back guarantee. This includes all the plans sold under the Hostroute, Hostroute.co.uk, Hostroute.com and Hostroute.ca brand names. MyQTH hosting and the free hosting provided by Nameroute does not have a money back guarantee. The full wording of the guarantee (where applicable) is given below:

3.4.4. If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service, and we are unable to put things right to your satisfaction, we will refund all web hosting charges paid by you (less 10% to cover credit card commission and associated charges).

3.4.5. To claim on this guarantee you must notify us of your wish to cancel an account within the first 30 days following activation and request a refund.

There are only four conditions:

  • There must have been a technical problem of some sort with the account which has been recorded with our Helpdesk and we are unable to issue a refund because you have found a cheaper offer.
  • Because domain name registration fees are passed on by us to the registration authorities we cannot refund these.
  • We reserve the right to pass on any excess bandwidth charges incurred by you in the first 30 days.
  • Dedicated servers are not covered due to the amount of work required to set them up.

3.4.6. Conditions

3.4.7. Hostroute will issue a refund to the customer's account in the event of a Service Outage due to the failure of one of the following pieces of equipment owned and operated by Hostroute or one of its suppliers, the ATM Network, the LAN or a web hosting server.

For purposes of this guarantee, Service Outages shall be defined as 10 consecutive minutes of web site (HTTP) inaccessibility as measured by our independent monitoring services.

Hostroute will not be held responsible for Service Outages resulting from equipment not owned or operated by Hostroute or its suppliers. This includes, but is not limited to, Internet NAP failures or congestion (Problems with one specific dial up ISP etc.) and non Hostroute backbone failures.

Additionally, Hostroute will not be held responsible for delays in the registration or transfer of a domain due to registry related issues, for outages resulting from malfunctioning customer scripts or applications that are installed by the customer, nor for unusual traffic spikes or denial of service attacks on customer web sites. Refunds will be issued upon request by the customer and upon determination that a Service Outage, as defined by this guarantee, has occurred. Refund requests must be made within thirty (30) days of the time period during which the Service Outage took place.

Regardless of the number of outages, all refunds are limited to a maximum of one month’s hosting service fees and do not include excess usage fees, setup fees or other non-standard recurring charges. Additionally, Service Outages will not include downtime due to Acts of God, nor for outside security breaches.

Finally, Hostroute will not be held liable for Service Outage damages resulting in the loss of prospective profits or anticipated sales or as a result of expenditures, investments, or commitments in connection with the business. Please note that this is not an insurance scheme. We do not cover problems relating to the company that provides your internet connection and we do not cover you for attacks by hackers, denial of service attacks or other criminal activities. It is in your own interests to consider business continuity insurance if you rely on your web site for commercial purposes.

3.5. Right of Cancellation

3.5.1. According to the Consumer Cancellation laws any Customer buying as a consumer has the unreserved right to cancel this Agreement at no cost and without any reason within 7 days from either:

  1. the date the contract is formed; or
  2. the date that confirmation that the contract is formed is received from us whichever is the later.

3.5.2. Prior to the provision of services the Customer may exercise the right of cancellation by notifying the Company in writing at our address shown in Clause 1 or by sending a fax to us at +44 (0) 20 7117 4798.

3.5.3. You will no longer have this right once we have commenced provision of the Services with your consent. You shall be deemed to have given such consent by accepting these Terms and Conditions.

3.6. IP Addresses and DNS delegation

3.6.1. We provide IP address information in your welcome email. This is provided to allow access to the web site and control panel until the domain name has been transferred to our DNS servers.

Customers are not permitted to link to their site or address via an IP address based link once the transfer is complete. This is for your own safety as it prevents links becoming out dated if we change your IP address.

3.6.2. All customers must change their domain name(s) DNS servers to those specified on their welcome email. We do not permit customers to use external DNS management tools because of the likelihood of failure if we change an IP address. If you decide to use an external DNS service then you agree to absolve Hostroute of all liability should your site fail due to DNS errors or the IP address changing at a later date.

3.6.3. All IP addresses remain the property of Hostroute or its upstream providers and are provided according to ARIN and RIPE rules and only when required for technical reasons.

3.7. DNS modifications

We do not provide DNS management services. If you require changes to DNS records (A, MX etc) we will do our best to carry them out but we cannot provide a warranty that the changes will continue to work in the future.

3.8. Bandwidth usage

Each hosting plan we provide has a set amount of bandwidth available per month. We monitor this usage and if your site is getting towards the limit we will send you an email to warn you of this. If it still goes over the limit it will be suspended until the second day of the next month. If you do not wish to wait until the next month you can upgrade your hosting plan to one with more bandwidth. If you are concerned about going over your limit you should also check your bandwidth usage in the control panel in the middle of the month and contact us if you think you will go over.

4. General Operational Provisions

4.1 Billing

4.1.1 Monthly Billing

4.1.2. We do not send out invoices. All credit cards are billed automatically on the anniversary of the date the account was ordered. So if a customer orders hosting on the 15th of the month they would be billed on the 15th every month. We believe this is sufficient advance notification of payment due. It is the client's responsibility to ensure that they have sufficient credit to cover this transaction. In the event that a card is declined for any reason we will send an e-mail with instructions for submitting a new credit card. If new card details are not supplied within 24 hours we will suspend the account. If new card details are still not received within 7 days we will delete the account.

4.1.3. The option is also available to pay annually in advance and not only will this remove the risk of suspension owing to non-payment, but we also offer a discount for using this option.

4.1.4. Annual Billing

If you pay annually we will not bill your card automatically. We will send a renewal notice approximately one month before your renewal date; this will be sent to the email address you provided us with when you signed up.

We also recommend that you make a note in your diary one year from the date you ordered the hosting originally. If we do not receive the renewal payment by the due date then we will suspend the account. If payment is still not received within 7 days we will assume the account is no longer required and delete it.

4.2. Taxes

Applicable consumption taxes imposed by government or other authority, shall be payable by you. At the time you purchase a product from us, you will be advised of the consumption tax rate which is currently 17.5% in the United Kingdom.

The consumption taxes are constantly changing and can be imposed after the date of engaging services from us. If there is an increase in a tax then you will be obliged to pay it. Similarly, in the event of any taxes which you have paid being abolished or reduced such that they no longer apply to you, or a lesser amount is due, you will be entitled to claim a refund. If you are a business outside the EU then you may be able to reclaim the consumption tax.

4.3. Currency

All our charges are payable in either British Pounds; US Dollars or Euros, unless another currency is indicated by us at or before the time payment is made (for example, because of the non-convertibility of the local currency). We may at our discretion, accept payment in another currency.

4.4. Refunds

4.4.1. Regular Hosting Clients

4.4.2. Should you become dissatisfied with our services within the first 30 days of your account activation, Hostroute will refund your hosting fee subject to the money back guarantee terms listed above.

4.5. Dedicated servers

4.5.1. The 30 day money back guarantee does not apply to dedicated servers because of the time and cost involved in setting up the servers.

4.6. Cancellation Refunds

4.6.1. We do not refund partial monthly or annual hosting fees for accounts cancelled after 30 days from the date of activation. For example, if you cancel an annual account after 6 months you will not get a refund of 6 months hosting fees.

4.7. Account Cancellations

4.7.1. By ordering services from us you agree to abide by these cancellation procedures. Before we cancel an account we need to make sure it really is the site owner requesting the cancellation. To cancel an account please fill out this form.

4.7.2. We aim to close accounts on the day cancellation is requested and we do not schedule closures for the end of the current month's hosting. Accounts are only to be considered cancelled once we have confirmed this by e-mail. If you have not received confirmation from us it means your account is still open and you will be billed for all services provided until we have given such confirmation.

4.7.3. Hostroute will not be held liable for the non arrival of your request to cancel an account. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have received confirmation of the account closure from us.

4.7.4. When an account is cancelled, all of its files are deleted and are not recoverable.

4.8. Extent of service

4.8.1. The service provided under this contract is the one listed on our web site on the day you ordered the service. For full descriptions of terms like PHP, Perl and MySQL refer to the versions of PHP, Perl and MySQL installed at the time you ordered. Although we regularly update these with security patches, no commitment to upgrading to newer versions is intended or implied.

4.9. Limitations of support

4.9.1. We want your web site to be a success, because that way you will want to renew your account and continue using our service. We will do our best to help you, so please contact technical support if you have any difficulties. However, customers sometimes get confused about what constitutes a realistic level of technical support so we need to explain this in detail.

4.9.2. Our technical support is limited to the service as originally provided (web hosting and email).

4.9.3. We will not provide support with:

  • Any adaptations you have made to our service to take it away from its original specification.
  • Scripts you have installed or written (CGI, Perl, PHP etc).
  • Web design issues or the content of your web site.
  • Problems with software not provided by us (e.g. FTP programs, web design programs or email software).
  • Modifications you have made to scripts installed using our control panel (e.g. the CGI center).
  • Support is provided via an online support manuals and our technical support department (via our help desk).

4.10. Response Times

4.10.1. We have put in place a problem tracking system.

4.10.2. We aim to respond to reports of any problems within a reasonable time given our resources but we do not offer a guaranteed response time. If you have a problem you must use our system to report it.

Please report all problems to http://helpdesk.hostroute.net. You will be allocated a unique tracking reference number to that problem. Any attempt to bypass our standard support system will only lead to delay and confusion in resolving your problem.

4.10.3. We provide support in English only and we strongly recommend you have good conversational English before you sign up for any services with us.

4.11. Length of contract

4.11.1. If you pay your web hosting account monthly then your contract runs for one month and is renewed for another month when you make your next month’s payments. If you pay annually then your contract runs for 12 months from the date you first ordered. The contract period runs from the time you ordered (e.g. if you order annual hosting at 2PM on the 1st of January it will expire at 2PM on 1st of January the following year).

4.12. Passwords

We will provide you with a username and password for accessing your account. This will be sent to the email address you entered into our order form. If you lose your password we can send a new one to the same email address. If your email address has changed you will need to supply proof of your identity before we will provide the password, to prevent anyone gaining unauthorized access to our customers' accounts. It is in your best interests that we verify your identity before issuing a password.

4.13. Correspondence

In the event of written notification of account termination being sent by Hostroute to a customer, any such communication sent by normal post shall be considered received by the customer seven days after it was posted.

4.14. Data integrity and backups

4.14.1. We will endeavor to keep backups of your data in order to restore the server if we have a disk failure. However, we provide no guarantee that we will be able to do so. It is in your own interests to keep a copy of your web site backed up on your own computer. You can do this by simply uploading changes from a copy you hold or by using the backup tool provided with most of our web hosting accounts.

4.14.2. If you have an accident with your site we will do our best to help, but we may not be able to restore your files for you.

4.14.3. It is impossible to have too many backups. Keeping a local copy at your location is the best way to protect your data.

4.14.4. If you are a dedicated server customer then we do not keep any backups of your files. If you have paid us for a backup drive then you have the hardware and software necessary for making backups, but it is your responsibility to make sure you have it turned on. Again, we can make no guarantees about the integrity of backups.

4.15. Virus Scanning

Some of our hosting plans include virus scanning. If you have ordered a service that includes this feature we will scan your incoming mail for viruses and reject any email which appears to contain one. We will update our virus definitions on a daily basis. However, we cannot guarantee to remove all viruses all of the time. For example, viruses hidden within certain types of attachment may not be detected. Viruses in emails forwarded from other domains may not trigger the virus scan as it goes through our mail transport agent. You should still have an anti virus program running on your own computer because it can check your whole system, not just your emails.

4.16. Controlling Incoming Spam

We provide tools to help you control spam on some of our accounts. These include Spam Assassin and Box Trapper. Customers using Box Trapper should be aware that it will stop them receiving renewal notices from us so they should add noreply@hostroute.com to their whitelist. Hostroute can not be held liable for spam received in your account but there are a number of things you can do to prevent it being received.

The main reasons for people receiving spam are:

  • They have published their email address on a web site or signed a guest book where it has been harvested (if this happens to you then try and remove the email address from the web to prevent it being harvested again).
  • They are using the default (catch all) email account and spammers are sending to things like webmaster@ and postmaster@ (if this is happening then set up a separate email account and set the default account to forward to :fail: which will reduce your level of incoming spam). If you are receiving a lot of spam using Spam Assassin (where provided) will help reduce the level. Instructions for this can be found in our support manuals (accessible from our support page).

In some cases the level of incoming spam for one domain can be so high that we have to take special steps to protect our network. This is normally done by blocking incoming mail from servers listed in blacklists which track known commercial spam operations (e.g. Spamhaus). However, we do not use blanket or known inaccurate blacklists as that could cause you to lose real mail. In some cases we will also block known sources of viruses. In extreme cases we may block all mail for a given domain or suggest other alternatives for mail delivery to protect our networks.

4.17. Complaints

The Subscriber should address any complaints concerning the provision of the Services to us at the Company's address shown in Clause 1. or by entering a ticket into http://helpdesk.hostroute.net.

4.18. Limits of support

Hostroute provides support with server side problems only. These include non-functioning of facilities provided with your hosting account and any faults which exist on the server your site is hosted on. Customers are responsible for designing and maintaining their own web sites. We can not provide advice or support for any programming or web design issues like FrontPage, CGI, PHP or ASP. Support for your web design software should be provided by the company which supplied the software.

4.19. Refusal of Service

Hostroute reserves the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend services at our sole discretion.

4.20. Sub domains

If you have a web site without a domain name of your own which has a sub domain based on a domain name we own, you have no rights to transfer that domain name to another provider. Hostroute reserves the right to transfer any sub domain in domains of its possession to an alternative domain.

5. Legal Provisions

5.1. Liability and Indemnity

Hostroute will not be held liable for any loss or damage caused by inability to use the services correctly by its customers. Hostroute will not be held liable for any damage caused by viruses received through emails received via our servers.

By ordering services from us you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Hostroute from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the subscriber or any other party. Your use of Hostroute's services are at your sole risk.

All Hostroute services are provided on an as is basis without warranties of any kind, either express, implied, constructive, or statutory, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, non infringement or fitness for a particular purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so this exclusion may not apply to you in full. Hostroute makes no guarantee of availability of service and reserves the right to change, withdraw, suspend, or discontinue any functionality or feature of the Hostroute service.

IN NO EVENT WILL HOSTROUTE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE HOSTROUTE’S SERVICES OR ANY CONTENT THEREON. THIS DISCLAIMER APPLIES, WITHOUT LIMITATION, TO ANY DAMAGES OR INJURY, WHETHER FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, CAUSED BY ANY FAILURE OF PERFORMANCE; ERROR; OMISSION; INTERRUPTION; DELETION; DEFECT; DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION; COMPUTER VIRUS; FILE CORRUPTION; COMMUNICATION-LINE FAILURE; NETWORK OR SYSTEM OUTAGE; OR THEFT, DESTRUCTION, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO, ALTERATION OF, OR USE OF ANY RECORD.

The formation, construction and interpretation of this agreement shall be controlled by the laws of England. The U.N. Convention of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded from any interpretation of this Agreement.

5.2 Legal jurisdiction

These terms and conditions are exclusively governed by Scottish law and by ordering services from Hostroute you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish courts.

5.3. Legal disputes

If you intimate that you are entering into legal action against us we will suspend your account until the legal dispute has been resolved.

5.4. Explanation of the above

We will do our best to keep the service running reliably but we will not be held responsible for any losses you incur through your use of it. If you are in business you should ensure you have adequate business insurance and we recommend you contact an insurance broker.

5.5. Changes to these terms and conditions

Hostroute reserves the right to change or amend these Terms of Service at any time without prior notice.

5.6. Enforcement

Violations of these Terms of Service should be referred by ticket via http://helpdesk.hostroute.net. All complaints will be investigated promptly. Violations of these terms and conditions can be grounds for immediate account deactivation without refund.

5.7. Data protection

Some files held by Hostroute are covered by the UK Data Protection Act. You can find out more about your rights in relation to these files at http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/.

5.8. Ofcom

These Terms and Conditions have been drafted with the General Conditions in mind and they comply with them.