This Web Hosting Agreement is between Straight Arrow Hosting and the person and/or business entity who signs up for Straight Arrow Hosting service(s). This Agreement governs clients' use of Straight Arrow Hosting's services, and is activated upon creating an account with our company.
Affronts to Etiquette
Unacceptable activities include spamming (sending unsolicited advertising to those with which the customer has no existing business relationship, posting off-topic advertising in newsgroups); spoofing (using a return email address which is not the valid reply address of the sender or sending an email message which does not contain enough information to enable the recipient to identify the party who is really sending the message; passive spamming (promoting a web site hosted by Straight Arrow Hosting by spamming from some other source), trolling (posting controversial messages in newsgroups to generate responses), mailbombing (inundating a user with email without any serious intent to correspond), generating a higher volume of outgoing mail than a normal user (over 10% of available system resources), and subscribing someone else to an electronic mailing list without that person's permission. A message is considered unsolicited if it is posted in violation of a newsgroup charter or sent to a recipient who has not requested the message. Making an email address available to the public does not constitute a request to receive messages. Distribution of mass emailing programs is also prohibited. All recipients on a mailing list must have personally subscribed. Mailing lists may not be used to distributed unsolicited email. Any customer repeatedly "mailbombed" or that attracts such behavior will be asked to leave. If you are not sure if your actions will be in violation, please ask first (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Spam/Unsolicited Mail
Sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial information over the Internet is prohibited and your actions can indirectly effect the ability of others to send mail freely. An account who gets any of Straight Arrow Hosting's IP addresses blacklisted in any of the various SPAM databases will be terminated immediately and without notice. No refund of services will be provided.
Maintaining an open SMTP relay is prohibited. Straight Arrow Hosting will terminate all accounts found to be spamming, without notice. A $500 cleanup fee for violating this policy will be charged. Futhermore Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to pursue legal prosecution for this violation. A $1.00 charge will be assessed PER EMAIL sent, as damages, should we choose to pursue and prosecute.
Legal Commercial Email
You must obtain Straight Arrow Hosting's advance approval for any bulk commercial e-mail, which will not be given unless you are able to demonstrate all of the following to Straight Arrow Hosting's reasonable satisfaction:
Any mailing list must have a double opt-in procedure to subscribe to the list;
Your procedures for soliciting consent include reasonable means to ensure that the person giving consent is the owner of the e-mail address for which the consent is given;
You retain evidence of the recipient's consent in a form that may be promptly produced on request, and you honor recipient's and Straight Arrow Hosting's requests to produce consent evidence within 72 hours of receipt of the request.
You have procedures in place that allow a recipient to easily revoke their consent - such as a link in the body of the e-mail, or instructions to reply with the word "Remove" in the subject line. Revocations of consent are honored within 72 hours, and you notify recipients that their revocation of their consent will be honored in 72 hours;
You must have a Privacy Policy posted for each domain associated with the mailing;
You have the means to track anonymous complaints;
You may not obscure the source of your e-mail in any manner. Your e-mail must include the recipients e-mail address in the body of the message or in the "TO" line of the e-mail; and
You otherwise comply with the CAN SPAM Act and other applicable law.
These policies apply to messages sent using your Straight Arrow Hosting service, or to messages sent from any network by you or any person on your behalf that directly or indirectly refer the recipient to a site hosted via your Straight Arrow Hosting service. In addition, you may not use a third party e-mail service that does not practice similar procedures for all its customers.
Straight Arrow Hosting may test and otherwise monitor your compliance with its requirements, including requesting opt-in information from a random sample of your list at any time.
Material Protected by Copyright
You may not publish, distribute, or otherwise copy in any manner any music, software, art, or other work protected by copyright law unless:
you have been expressly authorized by the owner of the copyright for the work to copy the work in that manner;
you are otherwise permitted by established United States copyright law to copy the work in that manner.
Straight Arrow Hosting will terminate the service of copyright infringers.
Copyright Infringement Notice (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
If you believe your copyright is being infringed by a person using the Straight Arrow Hosting network, please send your written notice of copyright infringement to:
Straight Arrow Hosting
616 22nd Ave SW
Altoona, IA 50009
Your notice must include the following:
A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or if multiple copyrighted words at a single site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Straight Arrow Hosting to locate the material;
Information reasonably sufficient to permit Straight Arrow Hosting to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an e-mail address;
A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent, or the law;
A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Abuse of the Law
Straight Arrow Hosting’s services may be used for lawful purposes only. Illegality includes but is not limited to: drug dealing; attempting without authorization to access a computer system; pirating (distributing copyrighted material in violation of copyright law, specifically MP3s, MPEG's, ROMs, and ROM emulators); gambling; schemes to defraud; trafficking in obscene material; sending a message or having content that is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person; threatening bodily harm or damage to individuals or groups; violating U.S. export restrictions; stalking; or violating other state or federal law such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or the Economic Espionage Act. Linking to illegal material is also prohibited. Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to check system files, email, and other data on our servers for illegal content and materials, or for any other reasons deemed necessary.
Pornography
Pornography and sex-related merchandising, or links to such material, even if legal, is not an acceptable use of Straight Arrow Hosting’s servers. Straight Arrow Hosting is also required by law to notify law enforcement agencies when it becomes aware of the presence of child pornography on or being transmitted through its network.
Abuse of Straight Arrow Hosting’s Server Resources
Running programs in the background on a Straight Arrow Hosting’s server without Straight Arrow Hosting’s prior written authorization, or running chat rooms, Internet Relay Chat, IRC bots, and the like are not acceptable uses of Straight Arrow Hosting’s servers. Further, any excessive usage or our system resources is an undue burden on our system and is unacceptable. If your usage ever exceeds our acceptable usage limits of system resources, your account may be terminated immediately and without prior notice. Usage of scripts or other utilities to direct pointed domain names to subdirectories is not permitted and is grounds for termination of the account.
CPU/Processor Usage
25 simultaneous processes
25% of CPU resources, for no greater than 90 seconds
Memory/RAM Usage
256mb (128mb on Basic or Starter Hosting Plans)
Apache Connections
25 concurrent connections
MySQL Connections
25 concurrent connections
Email Limitations
120 outgoing emails per hour
60 POP logins per hour
CRON Jobs
Execution of no greater than once per 10 minute period
Hacking/Cracking
Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to report illegal activities to any and all regulatory, administrative, and/or governmental authorities for prosecution.
The following examples of unacceptable behavior are non-exclusive, and are provided for guidance purposes. If you are unsure if your actions will be a violation of our policies please ask This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Server broadcast messages or any message sent on an intrusive basis to any directly or indirectly attached network. Attempt to circumvent any user authentication or security of host, network, or account. Accessing data not intended for user. Probing the security of any network. Spawning dozens of processes. Port scans, ping floods, packet spoofing, forging router information, Denial of Service attacks, sniffers, flooding, spoofing, ping bombing, smurfs, winnuke, land, teardrop. Promulgation of viruses. IRC bots such as eggdrop or BitchX. Any activity, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data, will be investigated and proper action taken. The presence of any of these programs, whether or not run, will result in action against the user including suspension or termination.
Other Unacceptable Materials
Straight Arrow Hosting does not accept material such as:
Proxy, Warez, Escrow, High Yield Investment Programs (HYIP), illegal Gambling and Lottery sites. Any Rapidshare or file sharing sites, and Phishing sites are prohibited.
Content "published or transmitted" via Straight Arrow Hosting's service includes web content, e-mail, bulletin board postings, chat, and any other type of posting or transmission that relies on any Internet service provided by Straight Arrow Hosting.
Client Responsibility
The customer is responsible for all activity originating from the account unless proven to be a victim of outside hacking or address forgery. The customer is responsible for securing their username/password. The customer assumes responsibility for all material on their site that may be put on by a third party (such as the usage of Free For All links pages). Use of Straight Arrow Hosting's service requires a certain level of knowledge in the use of Internet languages, protocols, and software. This level of knowledge varies depending on the anticipated use and desired content of the web space by the customer. The following examples are offered: Web Publishing: requires knowledge of HTML, properly locating and linking documents, FTPing Web contents, Graphics, text, sound, image mapping, etc. FrontPage web publishing: knowledge of the FrontPage tools as well as Telnet and FTP understanding and capability. CGI-Scripts: requires a knowledge of the UNIX environment, TAR & GUNZIP commands, Perl, CShell scripts, permissions, etc. Mail: a use of mail customers to receive and send mail, etc. The customer agrees that he or she has the necessary knowledge to create and maintain their web space. Client agrees that it is not the responsibility of Straight Arrow Hosting to provide this knowledge or support outside matter not specific to Straight Arrow Hosting's servers.
Streaming Audio/Video
Straight Arrow Hosting does not allow any streaming of audio or video content. Please host any streaming media on YouTube or via other means and then link to it from your site.
Large File Distribution / Storage
Clients may not host any files that are observed to be available for the sole purpose of download or storage. Such files include but are not limited to .ISO, audio/video files, .EXE files, MP3 files. If you are unsure whether your file is against this policy, please e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Export Control Violations
Exporting encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points outside the United States is illegal. Such activity will not be tolerated on our network.
Backups
Full backups are made once daily. No guarantees are made of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the integrity of these backups. Backups are made for internal server restoration purposes only. It is the customer's responsibility to maintain local copies of their web content, e-mail messages, and any other information. If loss of data occurs due to an error of Straight Arrow Hosting, Straight Arrow Hosting will attempt to recover the data for no charge to the customer. If data loss occurs due to negligence of customer in securing their account or by an action of the customer, or if the customer simply wants his/her account restored from a backup, Straight Arrow Hosting will attempt to recover the data from the most recent archive for a $25.00 fee. Either way, there is no guarantee that Straight Arrow Hosting will be able to recover lost data. It is imperative that all customers backup their data regularly. To request a restore from backup, please open a ticket from within the member's account area.
Accounts larger than 10GB will be excluded from the backup system, and their data will not be backed up, in either backup process.
IP Numbers
Straight Arrow Hosting maintains control and any ownership of any and all IP numbers and addresses that may be assigned to the customer and reserves in its sole discretion the right to change or remove any and all IP numbers and addresses.
Bandwidth Usage
All account plans come with a predetermined amount of bandwidth allowance. We monitor all accounts and bill a set amount for each gigabyte of bandwidth exceeded. This amount is not prorated, meaning that 1 mb - 1 gig will be treated and billed as the same.
Uptime Guarantee
Straight Arrow Hosting guarantees 99.99% service (http, ftp, pop, imap, smtp), hardware, and network uptime. Should we fail to deliver this for any given calendar month, your account will be credited a pro-rated amount for the duration of excessive downtime at customer's request, using the following system:
Network Uptime
Percentage of Monthly Invoice Credit
99.99 - 100%
0% credit
99.97 - 99.98%
10% credit
99.95 - 99.96%
25% credit
99.93 - 99.94%
50% credit
99.9 - 99.92%
75% credit
99.9% and below
100% credit
*Note: We cannot be held accountable for downtime caused by client mismanagement.
**Downtime for scheduled maintenance (announced at least 7 days in advance) shall not count toward SLA downtime.
Account Deactivations Due to Non-payment
Any account deactivated due to non-payment will require a reactivation fee of $20.00 prior to reactivation. Accounts that have been deactivated will be completely deleted from the hosting server and backup server after 30 days. After that time, the client's data will be unrecoverable.
Cancellation/Termination of Service
We require 7 days notice for a cancellation, so that we can cancel your account before your next invoice is due. Such notice must be made to the Billing Department, either via e-mail (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or via the Helpdesk.
IF YOUR ACCOUNT IS FOUND TO CONTAIN ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, ILLEGAL MP3 FILES, PIRATED SOFTWARE, HACKER PROGRAMS, WAREZ PROGRAMS, OR ANY OTHER ILLEGAL FILES, OR YOU ARE FOUND TO BE IN VIOLATION OF OUR TERMS OF SERVICE/ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE TERMINATED IMMEDIATELY, WITHOUT NOTICE, NO REFUND WILL BE PROVIDED, AND A $50.00 CANCELLATION FEE WILL APPLY. ADDITIONALLY, Straight Arrow Hosting WILL NOTIFY THE PROPER AUTHORITIES OF YOUR ACTIONS.
Refund Policy
REFUNDS WILL NOT BE HONORED FOR ANY REASON IF YOU ARE FOUND TO BE IN VIOLATION OF ANY SECTION OF OUR ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY OR TERMS OF SERVICE.
Assuming no violation of the above-listed policies, or supplemental Acceptable Use Policy has occured, refunds will be issued in the following manner:
Moneyback Guarantee (30 Days)
We offer an unconditional 30 day moneyback guarantee on all of our shared hosting plans.
Refunds (Greater than 30 Days)
Refunds will be given to clients who are dissatisfied with the services provided by Straight Arrow Hosting. This dissatisfaction must result from one of the following:
Failure of Straight Arrow Hosting to meet SLA (Service Level Agreement) uptime within the billing period (one month).
Failure of Straight Arrow Hosting to provide trouble-ticket support SLA (Service Level Agreement) minima for the average of all tickets submitted within the billing period (one month).
All refunds will be calculated based on a prorated amount of unused services. The prorated amount will be calculated by the monthly charge for each full month remaining in your billing cycle.
Services and Items Not Eligible for Refund
Due to the nature of the services we provide, and the nature of Internet services in general, several of our services and add-on items cannot be subject to refund.
Setup Fees - Setup fees are used to authorize the provision of server hardware and software, including any licenses necessary for the operation of the server.
Static IP Addresses - Any fees incurred with the provisioning of static IP addresses
Web Design - Due to the amount of intellectual property involved with the design of websites, we cannot offer refunds for our web design services.
Additional Software - Due to the license fees we must pay to the software providers on your behalf, we cannot offer refunds for any software purchased with your web hosting plan(s) or server(s).
Disk Space / Bandwidth Overage Charges - We cannot offer refunds on any charges incurred by the client due to disk space or bandwidth overages.
Extra Disk Space / Bandwidth Purchased - We cannot offer refunds on any charges related to the purchase of additional disk space bandwidth.
Balance Due
Please be advised that the cancellation of an account, or refund for a portion of services, does not release you from financial responsibility. If your account has a past-due balance and you are not eligible for a refund of those specific past-due balances, the Straight Arrow Hosting Accounting Department will continue collection efforts.
Account Termination in Association With Refunds
Any client who terminates his/her account, or requests a full or partial refund of services will have his/her account with Straight Arrow Hosting deleted, and the client will not be eligible for any future services with Straight Arrow Hosting.
Support
Straight Arrow Hosting agrees to support all customers via Helpdesk, 24/7. Tickets will be handled as quickly as possible, usually within 2-5 hours. The Helpdesk shall serve as the only official means of support. Support services will be provided for normal setup and configuration of your account (setting up email, FTP, etc.) Free support does not include supporting third party products or other files uploaded to the server. Please contact the creator of those products for support.
Interaction with Straight Arrow Hosting Support Personnel and Staff
The Straight Arrow Hosting Support Team and Staff take great lengths to provide polite, prompt, and excellent customer service at all times. For the safety and protection of our Staff, we have a zero tolerance policy in regards to abuse of our Staff. You may not threaten, abuse, shout at, swear at, insult, or otherwise disrespect our Staff during any form of business communication including, but not limited to, in person, telephone, live chat, fax, postal mail, email, forum post, blog post, instant messenger, or ticket response. Clients who violate this aspect of the Terms of Service are subject to account termination without warning. If such a termination takes place no refund will be given.
Examples of such activity include, but are not limited to:
Verbal abuse - cursing, yelling, threatening, etc...
Ongoing disregard for warnings or notices
Consistent mistakes/errors/changes causing unnecessary workload
Consistent support requests which are beyond the Straight Arrow Hosting Scope of Technical Support
Spamming Straight Arrow Hosting email addresses, ticket systems, contact (landline and mobile) numbers, SMS gateway, and servers
Continuous involvement in flood/DDOS activity, hacked services, or other ongoing non-permitted usage
Consistent late payments or responses
Issuing a chargeback or bouncing a payment
Continuous activation of problematic end-users (applicable to reseller, dedicated, and VPS clients)
Activity which affects the service(s) of other Straight Arrow Hosting clientele
Scope of Technical Support
Straight Arrow Hosting technical support includes:
Technical server support (installation of server modules, server software, etc) on shared and reseller hosting
Troubleshooting server conflicts (timeout warnings, unaccessible control panel, unresponsive server, etc.)
Installation help for scripts included in Softaculous
Straight Arrow Hosting technical support does not include:
Installation of customer software/script (other than those included in Softaculous)
Troubleshooting website malfunction such as error of loading scripts, security holes, etc.
Editing/Modifying customer website design/codes
Troubleshooting IP address(es) being blocked by certain RBLs due to SPAM
Limitation of Liability
Straight Arrow Hosting shall not be responsible for any claimed damages, including incidental and consequential damages, which may arise from Straight Arrow Hosting's servers going off-line or being unavailable for any reason whatsoever. Further, Straight Arrow Hosting shall not be responsible for any claimed damages, including incidental or consequential damages, resulting from the corruption or deletion of any website from one of Straight Arrow Hosting's servers.
Notwithstanding anything else in agreement to the contrary, the maximum aggregate liability of Straight Arrow Hosting and any of its employees, agents, or affiliates, under any theory of law (including breach of contract, tort, strict liability, and infringement) shall be a payment of money not to exceed the amount payable by client for one month of service.
Straight Arrow Hosting shall be the sole arbiter of what is and is not a violation of the Terms of Service, and Acceptable Use Policies. Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to terminate at any time and for any reason, an account that causes harm to any Straight Arrow Hosting's customer's web sites. Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to delete all content and files upon termination of service. Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to withhold any pre-paid funds for any site removed for violations of these policies. Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend service at our sole discretion.
Straight Arrow Hosting reserves the right to change the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy without prior notice or warning. Non-enforcement of any part of the Acceptable Use Policy/Terms of Service does not constitute consent.
Report Abuse
Violations of these Acceptable Uses Policies/Terms of Service should be referred to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Account Activation and Acceptance of this Policy
By activating your account with Straight Arrow Hosting, you agree to the above policies and disclaimers. Upon requesting activation of an account, you are required to accept these policies, guidelines and disclaimers, and a copy of your acceptance is forwarded along with your activation request to be maintained with your account information. This is a legally binding contract.