Our acceptable usage policy is read in conjunction with our standard terms and conditions for web hosting and forms part of our contract with yourself.
We may revise this Acceptable Use Policy at any time by posting the updated version of this policy on our website. You are therefore expected to check this policy periodically to take notice of any changes that we may make, as they are legally binding. Some of the provisions contained in this Acceptable Use Policy may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.
Main terms of policy
The Internet is a powerful information and entertainment tool. We would expect our customers to use the Internet with respect, courtesy, and responsibility, giving due regard to the rights of other Internet users.
As a major provider to the Internet community, Penguin Internet Ltd's acceptable use policy is designed to produce a better environment for us all. Common sense is the best guide as to what is considered acceptable use.
The following are unacceptable uses:
Illegality
In any form, including but not limited to activities such as unauthorized distribution or copying of copyrighted software, harassment, fraud, trafficing in obscene material, drug dealing, and other illegal activities.
Net abuse
Including but not limited to activities such as using a nonexistent return e-mail address on a commercial solicitation, spamming (sending unsolicited advertising to numerous e-mail addresses or
newsgroups and/or generating a significantly higher volume of outgoing email than a normal user), trolling (posting outrageous messages in newsgroups to generate numerous responses), mail-bombing
(sending multiple messages without significant new content to the same user), subscribing someone else to a mailing list without that person's permission, cross-posting articles to an excessive number of
newsgroups, or attempting without authorization to enter into a secured computer system.
Tortuous Conduct
Including but not limited to posting of defamatory, scandalous, or private information about a person without their consent, intentionally inflicting emotional distress, or violating
trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights.
Misuse Of System Resources
Including but not limited to employing posts or programs which consume excessive CPU time or storage space, for example chat scripts. Server scripts are not permitted either, eg
eggdrop & other IRC related scripts.
E-Mail
If you are using our servers for sending mail then it is your responsibility to ensure that this facility is used correctly. In the event that mail sent from your account is reported as SPAM then
this may lead to the server your account is based on being blacklisted and so affecting other customers on the same server. If you are using our SMTP servers then we recommend that this is only done if you are
running an up-to-date anti-virus program as this will then avoid any virus sending infected messages or mass mailing adverts via your account as you will be liable for any action required to rectify the matter.
Undesirable Content
Certain types of content are not permitted on our network. We do not host adult content that is not allowable under UK law. Content relating to Hacking, Cracking, Warez and IRC is not
allowed, nor are any form of bot scripts. Audio, Video & Software downloads may only be hosted if you are either the writer and copyright owner of the software/material, or alternatively if you have written permission from the copyright owner to do so.
We reserve the right to determine what constitutes acceptable use and to suspend or cancel a customers access to any or all of the services provided by Penguin Internet Ltd when Penguin Internet Ltd decides that the account has been inappropriately used or otherwise.
Server Use
Personal accounts are to be used by the primary owner only. Customers are not permitted resell, store or give away web-hosting services of their website to other parties unless they have specifically purchased a reseller account. Web hosting services are defined as allowing a separate, third party to host content on the owner's web site. Exceptions to this include ad banners, classified ads, and personal ads.
Penguin Internet Ltd reserves the right to refuse service and / or access to its servers to anyone
High resource usage
In rare cases, Penguin Internet Ltd may find a customer to be using server resources to such an extent that he or she may jeopardize server performance and resources for other customers. In such instances, Penguin Internet Ltd reserves the right to impose the High Resource User Policy for the consideration of all customers. Under this policy, Penguin Internet Ltd reserves the right to suspend the site until a solution can be agreed on between ourselves and the customer. This policy is only implemented in extreme circumstances and is intended to prevent the misuse of our servers and the deterioration of services to other customers.
Resources are defined as bandwidth (data transfer), disk space or inodes, memory and / or processor utilization.
Inode Utilisation
An inode is a filesystem data structure that stores information about files, such as permissions, ownership, etc and therefore each file or directory in a filesystem has a corresponding inode. The filesystem has a set maximum number of inodes that cannot be increased, therefore they are a limited resource.
In cases where customers are storing a significant number of files, this equates to a large corresponding number of inodes being used. This can occur in situations such as storing a significant number of e-mails or lots of temporary files being created in an account and not being deleted and this can directly affect the performance of the server, especially when it comes to backing up accounts or when filesystem checks need to be performed as every inode needs to be checked.
Shared Hosting and Reseller Accounts have a soft limit of 100,000 inodes per cPanel hosting account. Should an account reach this limit, we will discuss options to reduce the inode count and may also disable backups for this account. Should an account exceed 250,000 inodes then this is no longer suitable for Shared Hosting and will need to be moved to a VPS or dedicated server.
Incident reporting
If you with to report an abuse case or issue regarding one of our hosted domains, please e-mail: abuse@penguin-uk.com