User Policy
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE ORDERING SERVICES FROM U.S. NETWORX. BY ORDERING SERVICES, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND THESE PROVISIONS, AND AGREE TO ADHERE TO OUR USER POLICY.Unauthorized Use of Other People's Accounts or Computers
U.S. NetworX will strongly react to any use or attempted use of an Internet account or computer without the owner's authorization. Such attempts include "social engineering" (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password cracking, security hole scanning, etc. Any unauthorized use of accounts or computers by a U.S. NetworX customer, whether or not the attacked account or computer belongs to U.S. NetworX, will result in action against the attacker. Possible actions include warnings, account suspension or cancellation, and civil or criminal legal action, according to the seriousness of the attack.
Commercial Advertisements via E-mail (SPAM)
Unsolicited commercial advertisements are not allowed over e-mail, and will result in account suspension or cancellation. Commercial advertisements are unwelcome in most Usenet discussion groups and on most e-mail mailing lists. Inappropriate posting may result in account suspension or cancellation. See the newsgroups or mailing list's charter for whether advertising is allowed or not. "Spamming," or sending a message to many different off-topic newsgroups, is particularly unethical and will be treated as such. Sending a message, especially an advertisement, to more than five or six recipients, is by itself spamming unless the individuals have specifically requested to be added to a mailing list on that topic. E-mail is a person-to-person medium, not a broadcast medium. Accounts caught sending unsolicited, as defined by U.S. NetworX, email/usernet postings, either through our server(s) or to promote a website on our servers, will be terminated immediately, will not qualify for a refund, and will be charged $100 per complaint filed.
U.S. NetworX defines the term “unsolicited” as any e-mail sent to recipients who have not asked to be contacted by you, or Usenet postings (that are cross-posted to more than three newsgroups and/or posted in newsgroups where this is against that groups FAQ or charter), for the sole purpose of promoting a website or commercial business on our servers.
Resource Usage
U.S. NetworX makes every reasonable attempt to provide an environment suitable for use by its customers for the purpose of an online presence, including sufficient bandwidth and CPU resources. Bandwidth and CPU resources are on an open and "first come first serve" basis, as bandwidth and CPU resources are allocated in order of who requests them first. In this environment, it is possible for a user to consume more than their fair share of CPU resources and/or bandwidth and thereby impede the performance of the network and servers as a whole, adversely limiting the resources available to other users. U.S. NetworX closely monitors the performance of its systems and network.
If at any time U.S. NetworX deems that a user is imposing an unreasonable load on a server or the network (such as an inordinate number of CGI processes or MySQL calls), U.S. NetworX may, at its sole discretion, take any action it deems necessary to correct the problem and free up resources for other users, including but not limited to, killing processes or shutting down service for an offending user without notice. The following are prohibited: (a) any type of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client or script, (b) AlienForm (all versions), and (c) web proxy scripts, including any script, such as nph-proxy, that allows anyone to browse to a third party web site from any server in the U.S. NetworX network or that otherwise masks the true origination point of browsing activities by use of network information associated with U.S. NetworX. If these scripts are found, they will be deleted without notice. Repeated violations will result in account suspension or termination.
U.S. NetworX maintains control and ownership of any and all IP numbers and addresses that may be assigned to the client and reserves in its sole discretion the right to change or remove any and all IP numbers and addresses.
Prohibited Website Content
U.S. NetworX supports free speech on the Internet and will not suspend or cancel your account simply because it disagrees with the views expressed at your website. However, you are prohibited from storing, distributing or transmitting any unlawful or inappropriate content through any service provided by U.S. NetworX.
Examples of unlawful material include, but are not limited to, threats of physical harm, child pornography, and copyrighted, trademarked, and other proprietary material used without proper authorization. Examples of inappropriate content include pornography and sex-related merchandising, or links to such material, posting private information about a person without his or her consent, defaming a person or business, promoting violence or harm to others, and knowingly making available code that will have a deleterious effect on third-party computers.
Unacceptable use of our service also includes the presence of the following programs or the activities associated with them, regardless of whether or not any actual intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data: (a) server broadcast messages or any message sent on an intrusive basis to any directly or indirectly attached network; (b) attempts to circumvent any user authentication or security of host, network, or account; (c) accessing data not intended for user; (d) probing the security of any network; (e) spawning dozens of processes; (f) port scans, ping floods, packet spoofing, and forging router information; (g) denial of service attacks, sniffers, flooding, spoofing, ping bombing, smurfs, winnuke, land and teardrop; (g) promulgation of viruses; and (h) IRC bots, such as eggdrop or BitchX.
Domain Registration
U.S. NetworX cannot and will not check to see whether the domain name selected by a customer, or the use a customer makes of the domain name, infringes the legal rights of others. We urge the customer to investigate to see whether the domain name selected or its use infringes the legal rights of others, and in particular we suggest that each customer seek advice of competent counsel. Customers may wish to consider seeking one or more trademark registrations in connection with a selected domain name. Customers should be aware that there is the possibility U.S. NetworX might be ordered by a court to cancel, modify, or transfer a domain name. If we are sued or threatened with lawsuit in connection with a domain name, the Customer agrees to hold us harmless and indemnify us. If U.S. NetworX registers a domain name but does not receive payment from the customer, we have the right to hold the domain in our name for the remainder of the registration. We will transfer ownership of the domain name to the customer upon receipt of the registration fee, plus any late fees, unless the domain registration is involved in a legal dispute or the customer has amounts owed to us.
Server Maintenance
Scheduled server maintenance will typically occur on Friday or Saturday evenings, between 10:00 PM CST and 2:00 AM CST. Whenever this maintenance requires an interruption of service, we will make every effort to notify affected customers at least two days in advance. Emergency maintenance is sometimes required, and may cause an unexpected interruption of service.
Data Backup
We strongly recommend that our customers make frequent backups of their website and database files. If a customer has subscribed to our daily backup service, and submits a recovery request, we will attempt to recover specified files. Because backups are made at a specific time each day, we cannot guarantee that the files contained in our backups will be the most current versions for a given site. Backups are rotated frequently, so retrieval requests should be made within one week of deletion in order that files are available for restoration. U.S. NetworX is not responsible for files lost or damaged, or files that cannot be recovered. If a customer submits more than one file recovery request in a 90-day period, a $95 recovery fee will be assessed for each request submitted.
Programming Projects
A programming sales quote represents a good faith estimate of the hours required to complete the project described. If after we begin work on the project we discover that more hours are required than originally estimated, U.S. NetworX will inform the customer and get written approval before charging any fees in excess of the quote. If a customer decides to change or revise the project, a change order (or similar email) will be provided for approval. Change orders will be billed in addition to the original sales quote.
Any projected completion dates are dependent on the timeliness of the delivery of materials and information needed from the customer. In the event that information required from the customer is not received in a timely manner, then any projected dates for the project are automatically extended by the number of days in which the customer materials are late.
Unless otherwise specifically stated, a sales quote is based on the website being hosted on a server owned and managed by U.S. NetworX. The customer recognizes that because of variations in versions of software, operating systems, programming languages, and related technologies, the site may not be compatible with a server operated by another host, or with versions of software that may be released after the date of the sales quote. When the project is complete, the website will be put “live”. When the site is launched, the customer agrees that every aspect of the website’s appearance and functionality has been approved, and that all work has been done to his or her satisfaction. Any subsequent change requests, modifications, and upgrades will be billed to the customer as a separate charge.
U.S. NetworX represents that a website it develops shall be free of material defects in workmanship for 60 days. If any defect becomes apparent during this period, U.S. NetworX will repair the website to make it conform to the terms of the sales quote. If the customer modifies or alters the website, or uses a company or service other than U.S. NetworX to modify the website, or moves the website to a server not owned and maintained by U.S. NetworX, this warranty is void. In any event, the customer agrees that no claim for losses shall exceed the amount of fees paid to U.S. NetworX for services rendered under the project.
Payment Policies and Deactivation
Payment is due each anniversary date following the date the account was established and must be made in U.S. currency. Credit card and debit card orders are processed using Authorize.net. U.S. NetworX reserves the right to change prices at any time.
If any invoices are not paid within 20 days, the account is subject to deactivation and interruption of service, and customer agrees to pay a $5 late fee each month until invoices are paid in full. If a bank draft or credit or debit card charge is declined, or a check is returned unpaid (NSF), service will be interrupted until the charge is accepted or the account is paid current by some other method. We are under no obligation to resubmit a credit card charge or NSF check after receiving notification of a declined payment. The customer will be assessed a $25 fee to reactivate a deactivated account.
When an account is deactivated due to non-payment, we will keep a copy of the site on the server for up to 6 months, and then the site files will be permanently deleted.
Cancellation and Refunds
Customers can cancel service at any time. Due to security concerns, all cancellation requests must be submitted in writing via email, fax, or U.S. mail, with sufficient information necessary to confirm the validity of the request. The request should include the primary contact of the account, account name, username or domain name, address, phone number, email address, and reason for cancellation. When an account is cancelled by a customer, all website and email files will be permanently deleted from the server.
The customer is responsible for all money owed on the account from the time it was established to the time that the customer notifies U.S. NetworX in writing for a request for cancellation of services.
U.S. NetworX reserves the right to cancel service at any time without notice for any reason that it deems appropriate. Service fees paid in advance of cancellation will be prorated and refunded if U.S. NetworX institutes its right of cancellation. However, if cancellation is caused by the customer's violation of these policies, then no refund is due. If the customer cancels an account after 7 days of the start of a service period, no refund will be issued.
Indemnification
Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold U.S. NetworX harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney’s fees asserted against U.S. NetworX, its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, its agents, employees or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless U.S. NetworX against liabilities arising out of (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with a U.S. NetworX server; (2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party; (3) copyright infringement, and (4) any defective products sold to customer from a U.S. NetworX server.
Disclaimer
Our services are critically dependent on the services of multiple other providers, such as telecommunications providers, utility companies, equipment manufacturers, software developers, etc., so U.S. NetworX cannot be responsible for any damages a customer may suffer. This includes loss of data, lack of access, delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions. U.S. NetworX makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied about the services we provide, and specifically disclaims all warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Customer agrees that U.S. NetworX will not be held liable for system downtime, crashes, or data loss, and for any predicted estimate of profits that the customer would have gained if their site was functioning. Certain services provided by U.S. NetworX are resold. Thus, certain equipment, routing, software, and programming used by us are not directly owned, written or managed by us. U.S. NetworX holds no responsibility for the use of our customers’ accounts.
Each customer is responsible for keeping up to date on the terms and conditions of this User Policy. Any changes to this User Policy shall be effective immediately.