SPHERE WEB HOSTING, LLC. TERMS OF SERVICE & ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY (TOS/AUP)

These are the terms you agree to when ordering services from Sphere Web Hosting, LLC. The Account Holder is responsible for the use of each account, whether used under any name or by any person, and for ensuring full compliance with this Agreement by all users of that account. Your privacy is important to us, please review the Sphere Web Hosting Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about what you see on this page, please feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Services We Provide
In exchange for the fees you pay in advance, we will host your website on one or more of our servers, so long as you abide by the terms and conditions that are set out on this page, and in any other agreements that relate to the services we may provide to you. We will provide the services according to the specifications listed for the hosting package you select during the signup process. For clarity, on this page, the term "services" refers to the web hosting services that we will provide to you. The term "Sphere Web Hosting' or "Sphere" or "us" or "we" or "our" refers to Sphere Web Hosting, LLC.

Permission to Host Your Content
All services provided by Sphere Web Hosting may only be used for lawful purposes. The laws of the States of South Carolina, Illinois, and the United States of America apply. For us to host your website, it is necessary for you to upload your content to our servers. When you do this uploading, you are creating one or more copies of your content on our system. By purchasing hosting services from us, you acknowledge that these copies are being made, and give us the permission (a license) to maintain these copies and make them available to users of the Internet. You are solely responsible for providing all of the content and other data that make up your website.

When the Services Will be Available
We will attempt to provide the services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for as long as you have paid for them. Sometimes, however, for a number of reasons, the services may be unavailable to you. You must recognize and acknowledge that due to the nature of web hosting technology, occasional unavailability of the services cannot be avoided. Sometimes there are equipment malfunctions. At other times we undertake periodic maintenance procedures or repairs. Still other times, there are causes beyond our control like power failures, interruption or failure of telecommunication or digital transmission links, hostile network attacks, network traffic and other occurrences. We have not promised to provide you with uninterrupted service.

Automatic Renewal
When you sign up, your Sphere account will be enabled with auto renewal, which means that when your renewal date arrives, your hosting plan(s) and domain(s) will be renewed. When it is time for renewal, the credit card you have on file with us will be charged. If you wish to not have this happen, and you would not like to renew your account, you may cancel at anytime.

Any invoice that is overdue for 3 days and not paid will result in account suspension, which means that your data and website will not be available until your account balance has been paid in full. We reserve the right to terminate any account that is not paid after 10 days. If your non-payment results in termination, your data will be deleted and no longer retrievable. You hereby acknowledge that this is Sphere's policy when it comes to data retention, and waive all rights in and to your data in these situations.

Acceptable Use/Illegal Activity
Sphere strives to maintain a high-level of service, and a lot of customers depend on our high standards of quality. The provisions of this section are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive. Generally, conduct that violates law, regulation, or the accepted norms of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned here, are prohibited. As such, we will not provide services to those that are using our services for:

• Hacking, which includes, for example penetrating or attempting to access, without authorization, another computer or network. Port scans, stealth scans, and fraudulent credit card "phishing" techniques are also prohibited.
• Hosting of files or other data that infringes on another's copyright or other intellectual property rights.
• Spamming, or sending of bulk unsolicited email. We maintain a strict policy on spamming, which includes the sending of unauthorized commercial messages by use of our services, or by maintaining an open SMTP connection. We reserve the right to refuse or terminate service based on reasonable indications that you are engaged in spamming of any sort.
• Uploading or linking to any content that violates another's right of publicity or privacy.
• Distributing hate speech, or any other content that is obscene, abusing, which could be considered libelous and defamatory.
• Hosting, storing, linking to or distributing child pornography. If any such content is found and brought to our attention, the proper law enforcement agencies will be notified.
• Hosting, storing, linking to or distributing adult (pornographic) content.
• Hosting large amounts of data not specifically tied ("linked") to your hosting account. Sphere encourages users looking for file storage/backup solutions to seek other services that specialize in this.

Any material that, in our judgment, is obscene or threatening or otherwise violates this Agreement is prohibited and will be removed from our servers. Sphere Web Hosting reserves the right at all times to require changes, disable or terminate as necessary any website, account, database, or other component that does not comply with its established policies, or to make any such modifications in an emergency, without notice if necessary, at its sole discretion. This includes, but not limited to, end users accounts of hosting resellers. We also reserve the right to prohibit activities that damage Sphere Web Hosting's commercial reputation and goodwill. We will be the sole arbiters as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.

Users are ultimately responsible for all actions taken under their account. It is the Account Holder's responsibility to ensure that all scripts and programs installed are secure and directory and file permissions are set properly, regardless of origin or installation method. The Account Holder agrees to use secure password(s) and is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of his/her password(s). If we discover an insecure password, we reserve the right to ask you to change it to a secure password. In the event of a breach of security through the Account Holder's account, the Account Holder must notify our This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

DMCA Copyright Infringement Information
In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have adopted a policy to suspend or terminate the accounts of website owners found to be in violation of copyright. We respect the intellectual property of others, and we ask you to do the same. We may, in appropriate circumstances and at our discretion, disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may be repeat violators. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please provide our Copyright Agent (identified below) the following information:

• an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
• a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
• a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site;
• your address, telephone number, and email address;
• a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
• a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf.

Sphere Web Hosting, LLC.
Management
120 E Liberty St
Sumter, SC 29150   

Sites advertised via SPAM may not be hosted on our servers. This provision includes, but is not limited to SPAM sent via fax, e-mail, instant messaging, or usenet/newsgroups. No organization or entity listed in the ROKSO may be hosted on our servers. Any account which is advertised via spam or results in our IP space being blacklisted will be immediately terminated.

Sphere Web Hosting reserves the right to charge the holder of the account used to send any unsolicited e-mail a clean up fee if necessary. Reseller account holders are the responsible account holder for their customers. The cost of the clean up fee, and whether one is charged, is at the sole discretion of Sphere Web Hosting.

E-Mail / Mailing List Limits
The following limits apply to all domains with the exception of dedicated server accounts. Failure to comply with this section will result in account suspension or termination.

• All mailing lists MUST comply with all guidelines set forth by the United States ( http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm ).
• Any mailing list larger than 1000 is prohibited. Dividing one large list into smaller list is not allowed.
• You must throttle all sending of mailing lists to 1 e-mail every 6 seconds (or longer). If your mailing list program does not include this feature, you must change to one that does. Causing excessive server load by not throttling your mailing lists will result in account suspension or termination.
• Large mailing lists can only be sent during off-peak hours. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for these times.
• Your mailing list cannot be one purchased or given to you. This will be considered spam because the recipients did not agree to receive e-mail from you. No second chances on this. We do not allow spam. Your account will be terminated without notice, no files located on your account will be retrievable, no refunds will be given, no exceptions will be made and you will be charged a clean up fee.
• No Direct SMTP mailers are allowed. An example of this is DarkMailer. All e-mail should be relayed through the e-mail server for further delivery and not done directly by scripts.
• There is a 60 pop checks per hour limit on all e-mail accounts.

Cancellations, Refunds and Guarantees
Customers may cancel at any time, in writing, by creating a ticket via our Support Desk and directing it to our Billing Department. You will then receive further instructions in order to confirm and complete the cancellation process. Phone cancellations will not be accepted. Sphere Web Hosting gives you an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee on shared and reseller hosting solutions. Cancellation requests after the initial 30 days will be refunded on a prorated basis of any unused time except for the following: If your hosting plan included any domain registrations or transfers in the price, a $15.00 fee will be deducted from your refund for each domain you registered as part of your hosting plan. There are no refunds on dedicated servers, administrative fees, install fees for custom software, domain name purchases or any other service or add-on. Violations of the Terms of Service will waive the refund policy.

Only first-time accounts are eligible for the 30 Day Money Back Guarantee. For example, if you've had an account with us before or are adding a second account, you will not be eligible for the 30 Day Money Back Guarantee.

30 Day Money back Guarantee
For new first time accounts only, as outlined below, Sphere Web Hosting offers an unconditional money back guarantee:

• 30 Days from account sign up for the first Shared Hosting plan.
• 30 Days from account sign up for the first Reseller Hosting plan.
• 0 Days from account sign up for any Dedicated Server Hosting plan.
• 0 Days from account sign up for any other purchase(s), add-on(s) or service(s).

If you are not completely satisfied with our service(s) within the time frame outlined above, you will be given a full refund of your hosting plan's fee. This is only for the first shared or reseller hosting package purchased and does not apply to dedicated servers, administrative fees, install fees for custom software, add-ons or any other service fee you may have incurred. Domain names purchase from Sphere Web Hosting remain yours and are non-refundable.

If your hosting plan included any domain registrations or transfers in the price, a $15.00 fee will be deducted from your refund for each domain you registered as part of your hosting plan and the domain(s) will remain registered to you until the annual renewal date, at which time you will be responsible for any renewal fees. Once you cancel your account we are no longer obligated to maintain your domain name renewal or provide hosting services for it.

To initiate the 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, you must do it in writing by creating a ticket via our Support Desk and directing it to our Billing Department. You will then receive further instructions in order to confirm and complete the process. Phone cancellations will not be accepted.

Anytime Money Back Guarantee
You can feel secure choosing any billing cycle for your hosting plan. If you are not satisfied and wish to cancel your account after the initial 30 days, a prorated refund will be issued based on the following: Time used for hosting services will be assessed at the monthly rate for your plan and deducted from the fees paid by you, less any setup fees and other non-refundable fees. If your hosting plan included any domain registrations or transfers in the price, a $15.00 fee will be deducted from your refund for each domain you registered as part of your plan and the domain(s) will remain registered to you until the annual renewal date, at which time you will be responsible for any renewal fees. Once you cancel your hosting account we are no longer obligated to maintain your domain name renewal or provide hosting services for it. Special services, products and domain names purchased through us remain yours and are non-refundable. This guarantee does not apply to dedicated server hosting.

Uptime Guarantee
Sphere Web Hosting strives to maintain 99.9% service availability. We do not provide or guarantee your personal connection to the internet (i.e. Your internet service provider (ISP), such as Comcast, RoadRunner, AT&T, etc.), the proper function of your personal computer or computer hardware or the functionality of the programming (or coding) of your web site . Our guaranteed uptime coverage is as follows:

Credits shall not be provided to you in the event that you have downtime resulting from scheduled maintenance, operating system updates, server software updates, control panel updates or issues resulting from these updates, account suspensions or downtimes resulting from you or your customers own coding or applications, or circumstances beyond Sphere Web Hosting's control, including and without limitation, acts of any governmental body, acts of God, acts of terrorism, war, insurrection, embargo, sabotage, fire, flood, labor disturbance, interruption of or delay in transportation, unavailability of interruption or delay in telecommunications or third party services (including DNS propagation), failure of your own personal hardware or our inability to obtain raw materials, supplies, or power used in or equipment needed for provisioning of services. All credits issued are at the sole discretion of Sphere Web Hosting and will not exceed the monthly cost of your hosting plan.

To initiate a credit for downtime, you must create a support ticket with our billing department within three (3) days of your experienced downtime. The request must include the dates and times of the downtime. Failure to request downtime credit within three (3) days of the actual downtime may result in your request being denied. Information submitted must be detailed and accurate. Best guesses and information obtained from 3rd party monitoring services will not be considered accurate.

Resource Usage
With the exception of dedicated server hosting, you acknowledge and agree your account resides in a shared hosting environment and that resources need to be equally available to all users, as they pertain to performance. Within a shared environment, account holders may not:

• Use 15% or more of system resources for longer then 90 seconds. There are numerous activities that could cause such usage; these include but are not limited to poorly written scripts or bad page coding. If your resource usage regularly exceeds this you have out-grown the realm of a shared hosting environment and will need to consider moving to a dedicated server.
• Run stand-alone, unattended server-side processes at any point in time on the server. This includes any and all daemons (like IRCd).
• Run any type of web spider or indexer (including Google Cash / AdSpy) on shared servers.
• Run any software that interfaces with an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network.
• Run any bit torrent application, tracker, or client. Please note that you may link to torrents off server, but may not host or store them.
• Participate in any file-sharing/peer-to-peer activities.
• Run any gaming servers.
• Execute cron entries with intervals of less than 15 minutes.
  

Disk Space
While we provide ample disk space for your account, all files stored on our servers must directly link to your web site(s) that are hosted on our servers. Using a hosting account primarily for online file storage or archiving electronic files is prohibited. Accounts that constantly create and delete large numbers of files on a regular basis, cause file system damage or cause the server to crash will flag your account for review and could potentially result in your account being suspended. This provision does not apply to dedicated server hosting.

Bandwidth Usage
You are allocated a monthly bandwidth allowance. This allowance varies depending on the hosting package you purchase. Should your account pass the allocated amount we reserve the right to suspend the account until the start of the next allocation, suspend the account until more bandwidth is purchased at an additional fee, suspend the account until you upgrade to a higher level of package, or charge you an additional fee for the overages. Unused transfer in one month cannot be carried over to the next month. Using bandwidth to serve any content to a domain located outside your account is prohibited. Accounts that consume large amounts of bandwidth and reduce the performance of other web sites will flag your account for review and could potentially result in your account being suspended.

Reseller: Client Responsibility
Resellers are responsible for supporting their customers. For reasons of account security, Sphere Web Hosting does not provide direct support to our reseller's customers. If a reseller's customer(s) contact(s) us directly, we reserve the right to place the account on hold until the reseller can assume their responsibility for their customer(s). All support requests must be made by the reseller on their customers' behalf. Resellers are also responsible for all content stored or transmitted under their reseller account and the actions of their customer(s). Reseller account holders are responsible for any of their client's actions that violate this Agreement or any other agreement that pertains to their hosting account.

Shared (non-reseller) Accounts
Shared accounts may not resell web hosting to other people, if you wish to resell hosting you must use a reseller account.

Dedicated Servers
Sphere Web Hosting reserves the right to reset the password on a dedicated server if the password on file is not current. It is the responsibility of the customer to ensure that there is a valid e-mail address and current root password on file for their dedicated server. We are not responsible for downtime caused by forced password resets. Sphere Web Hosting reserves the right to audit servers as needed and to perform administrative actions at the request of our data center.

IP Addresses
If Sphere Web Hosting assigns the Account Holder an Internet Protocol address or addresses in connection with the Account Holder's use of the Sphere Web Hosting services, the right to use that Internet Protocol address will remain with and belong only to Sphere Web Hosting, and the Account Holder will have no right to use that Internet Protocol address except as allowed by Sphere Web Hosting in its sole and absolute discretion. Sphere Web Hosting reserves the right to change assigned IP address(es) or revoke assigned IP address(es) at anytime as Sphere Web Hosting sees fit.

System and Network Security
Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: unauthorized access, use, probe, or scan of a systems security or authentication measures, data or traffic. Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks. Forging of any TCP-IP packet header, or any part of the header information, in an e-mail or a newsgroup posting.

It is a violation for anyone who, including but not limited to, employs, posts, or uses programs which consume excessive CPU time or storage space, permits the use of mail services, mail forwarding capabilities, POP accounts, or auto responders other than for their own account; to resell or give access to others any CGI scripts or other software installed on our servers.

Violation of the section will result in immediate termination of your account without notice. No files located on the offending account will be retrievable, no refunds given, no exceptions will be made.

Indemnification
Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Sphere Web Hosting harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney's fees asserted against Sphere Web Hosting, 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 Sphere Web Hosting against liabilities arising out of; (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with Sphere Web Hosting; (2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party; (3) copyright infringement; (4) any defective products sold to customers from Sphere Web Hosting's server and (5) any damage, corruption or loss related to or in connection with the content of the Account Holder's website. The terms of this Section will survive any termination of this Agreement.

Disclaimer
SPHERE WEB HOSTING SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN AS IS, AS AVAILABLE BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. THIS INCLUDES LOSS OF DATA RESULTING FROM DELAYS, NO DELIVERIES, WRONG DELIVERY, AND ANY AND ALL SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY SPHERE WEB HOSTING AND ITS EMPLOYEES. SPHERE WEB HOSTING EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY THAT THE SPHERE WEB HOSTING SERVICES WILL BE ERROR-FREE, SECURE OR UNINTERRUPTED. NO ORAL ADVICE OR WRITTEN INFORMATION GIVEN BY SPHERE WEB HOSTING, ITS EMPLOYEES, LICENSORS OF THE LIKE, WILL CREATE A WARRANTY; NOR MAY YOU RELY ON ANY SUCH INFORMATION OR ADVICE. THE TERMS OF THIS SECTION WILL SURVIVE ANY TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT

Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT SHALL Sphere Web Hosting, LLC. BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFIT OR GOODWILL, FOR ANY MATTER, WHETHER SUCH LIABILITY IS ASSERTED ON THE BASIS OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), BREACH OF WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ANY BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT OR ITS INCORPORATED AGREEMENTS AND POLICIES, YOUR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR SERVICES, YOUR LOSS OF DATA OR FILES OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF Sphere Web Hosting, LLC. HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. In no event will Sphere Web Hosting's liability for any damages, losses and causes of actions whether in contract or tort (including negligence or otherwise) exceed the actual dollar amount paid by You for the Services during the 1-month period prior to the date the damage or loss occurred or the cause of action arose. The provisions of this Agreement pertaining to Uptime Guarantee apply to credits available to you for system downtime.

Governing Law and Choice of Form
The laws of United States, the State of South Carolina and the State of Illinois will govern this Agreement, without reference to rules governing choice of laws. Any action relating to this Agreement must be brought in the federal or state courts located in Sumter County, Sumter, South Carolina.

Notice
Termination of an account automatically deletes all files associated with that account and therefore no files located on the offending account will be retrievable. No exceptions will be made. A Sphere Web Hosting account may not be transferred without prior written notice to Sphere Web Hosting and Sphere Web Hosting's review and acceptance of the new account holder.

When these Terms Take Effect
This agreement becomes effective once you submit your order with us or open an account with us for web hosting services of any kind. Sphere Web Hosting reserves the right to revise its policies at any time without notice. Policies become effective upon publishing to spherewebhosting.com. If you are an existing customer, and you do not agree with the terms herein, please cancel your account. Otherwise, if you sign up for or continue to use the services, you agree to what is written here.