Hosting terms and conditions
Account Setup

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) is a self serve, pre-paid provider.

We will setup your account after payment has been received & cleared, and our payment partner(s) have screened your order in case of fraud. You may be requested to provide proof of your identity. If paying by credit card, we may require you to fax a copy of the front and back used to make payment of the card to us if requested by our accounts department. If this information is not provided, we reserve the right to terminate all services on your account without refund. Please provide us with an email address which is not at the domain you are signing up under.

Only the authorised person listed on the account, entered at signup will have access to the account, and they will be referred to as the 'primary account holder'. The primary account holder will be issued with an email address and password which is required to access online billing and Help Desk to receive assistance. You are required to login before we engage your account. Requests received from your account once logged in, will be deemed to have come from the primary account holder. Please ensure you never give out your login details to anyone. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) may also verify your identity by asking security questions, as required by the privacy laws in Australia. The client agrees to provide this information before assistance can be provided to them.

If you wish to change the legal ownership of a whole account (and all products and services under it) there is a $39.90 charge for the administration work involved. To facilitate the transfer, the primary account holder needs to fax Besthost.com.au (Besthost) a signed letter which includes their full name, email address, full address, date of birth, domain name and/or products listed on their account, along with the new registrant details: Full name, full address, email address, date of birth. Please allow 5 working days for a transfer of legal ownership on the account. Changing the legal ownership of an account does not include updating the legal registrant information for a .au domain name. It is not possible to assign individual products and services to new accounts. If this is required, the old products and services must be cancelled and reopened on a new account.

By signing up with Besthost.com.au (Besthost) you understand and agree that you are:

1. Over 18 years of age, or

2. Under 18 years of age and have obtained parental permission to use our products and services.

Domain names
Domain names are governed by our domain name service agreements. By registering or transferring a domain name you agree and are bound by these agreements.

Publisher and author of web site
Besthost.com.au (Besthost) does not create or publish web sites and is not the publisher or author of any web site you host or create. As the publisher, author, or reseller, it is your responsibility to ensure your web site(s) do not breach our terms and conditions.

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) is not a web site publisher and is not resposible for or endorse the content hosted by or activities performed by you whilst using our services or by any sites you host.

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) provisions our web site builders and other related software to clients to allow them to create and publish web sites. The client agrees the web site and material they design and publish, will not breach our terms and conditions.

From time to time, a client that experiences difficulties in publishing their web site or troubleshooting technical problems may request we publish their web site or modify their web site on their behalf. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) is this instance does not become the web site publish and/or author and is making these changes by instruction of the Primary Account holder.

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) does not offer domain names for testing or any other use. You must purchase your own domain names for your purposes.

Content
All products and services provided byBesthost.com.au (Besthost) may only be used for lawful purposes. This includes, but not limited to copyrighted material, or material we judge to be threatening, obscene and pornography. We do not allow pornographic sites. The customer agrees not to host such material.

The customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Besthost.com.au (Besthost) from any claims resulting from the use of our products or services in any shape or form. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) does not endorse any web site content hosted on our network and the content remains the property of the web site owner. If you wish to lodge a complaint against a web site, please email us at info@besthost.com.au.

Examples of unacceptable material:

IRC Bots
Warez Sites
Defamation of person's character
Pirated Software
Running processes which cause the server to crash or become non-responsive
Illegal or pirated sites, content or software.
Breaching copyright and trademarks
Proxy servers or other servers
Hate sites
Run any bit torrent
Pornographic sites (nudity)
MUD applications
Hack programs and archives
Spamming related sites or sites that send out spam email
Extremists sites
Phising sites
Other sites where formal complaints are received
Sites where Besthost.com.au (Besthost) is placed 'on notice' or where legal action will be take against a Besthost.com.au (Besthost) for hosting a web site, with supporting evidence.
Sites which have been hacked / run malicious scripts
If your web site is suspended and/or breaches any of the above, we reserve the right to charge a cleanup fee for the administration time involved to attend to your account / server and update you on the issue at the standard rate of $39.90 per hour, minimum 1 hour. You will be responsible to resolve the issue and rectify the issue after we inform you of the breach.

Zero Tolerance Spam & Leeching Policy
We take a zero tolerance stance against sending of unsolicited e-mail, bulk emailing, and spam. "Safe lists" and "double option" will be treated as spam.

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) reserves the right to require changes or disable as necessary any web site, account, database, or other component that does not comply with this policy, at its sole discretion. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) also reserves the right to make any such modifications that are urgent at our sole discretion.

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) reserves the right to charge the holder of the account used to send any unsolicited e-mail a clean up fee. This cost of the clean up fee is left entirely to the discretion of Besthost.com.au (Besthost).

You also agree not to use the shared URL as a primary download link or web site address. This link is provided for web site testing purposes only. If found to be using the shared URL as a primary download link or web site address (except for genuine SSL usage below), you will be charged extra bandwidth usage charges and/or a clean up charge as the descretion of Besthost.com.au (Besthost).

The shared URL is also provided for genuine shared SSL access. The shared SSL link can only be used for valid sites that need secure access for their functionality e.g. Running an online store.

Backups and data loss
You agree you will only perform backups of your site, databases, web space, etc, using the backup function in your hosting control panel between the off peak hours of 11.30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time and 7am Australian Eastern Standard Time. Using the backup function outside of these times may result in your account being suspended, as outlined below.

The backup function in your control panel uses high server resources and may cause the server to become less responsive, affecting the web site performance for other users.

Your use of our products and services is at your sole risk. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) is not responsible for files and data residing on your account. You agree to take full responsibility for files and data transferred and to maintain all appropriate backup of files and data stored on Besthost.com.au (Besthost) servers at all times.

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) will not be liable for any data loss due to server failure, any other failure whatsoever, or unforeseable corruption of programs, hacking, etc. The client should always have a backup or storage of data that is not corrupted and is available to be used if necessary.

We provide backup tools in your control panel which will allows you to perform backups of your account when required, or you can always download your web site files from our server for off-site storage.

Security
Besthost.com.au (Besthost) g may introduce new security measures from time to time to help prevent maclilious use and attacks to our servers.

No shell access is provided on shared hosting servers for security reasons. The hosting control panel provided will in most cases provide a shell alternative to the task you wish to perform. e.g. Administer a MySQL database.

Payment Information
You agree to supply appropriate payment for the services received from Besthost.com.au (Besthost), in advance of the time period during which such services are provided. You agree that until and unless you notify Besthost.com.au (Besthost) of your desire to cancel any or all services received, those services will be billed on a recurring basis.

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) reserves the right to change the advertised price on products and services and any other charges at anytime. Current customers will be notified prior to any change in their billing cycle charges. All new services will be charge at the new rate.

If you have selected to pay by electronic invoice, it is your responsibility to ensure your email address listed in our billing system is functional and working, so you can receive notifications, payment reminders, etc.

All goods and services purchased for which payment has not been received in cleared funds, remains the property, internet property and intellectual property of Besthost.com.au (Besthost).

Besthost.com.au (Besthost) is a prepaid service. Your account will not be created until funds have been received in cleared funds. It is your responsibity to ensure we have received funds by the due date to avoid suspension and/or termination of our products and services. If you have made payment and would like to cancel your account before it is activated, you will receive a refund, minus a $10.00 administration charge, to cover our bank fees, postage charges, fraud screening and company administration. If you have made an over payment on your account and require a refund, you will receive a refund, minus a $5.00 administration charge, to cover our bank fees and company administration.

We reserve the right to change and refuse payment methods to clients at the sole descresion of Besthost.com.au (Besthost). If payment is not received 14 days after the invoice due date, we reserve the right to charge a late payment fee of $15.00.

Credit Card payments
If you have signed up using credit card, your credit card will be rebilled on the due date of future invoices. Our system generates you an electronic invoice when your service is due for renewal.

Please ensure sufficient funds are available on the due date. If rebilling fails due to insufficient funds in credit card account, we reserve the right to add $1.00 per failed transaction to your account, to cover the company's transaction fees. We also reserve the right to change your billing method from automatic credit card payments to manual payments, where the user is required to login and make payment.

You understand and agree that you have obtained the credit card owner's permission to use the credit card to purchase our products and services and they are aware, accept and agree that the transaction is taking place on their card.

Hosting plans version
From time to time, we may update our hosting package plans. When a hosting plan is updated, the version number shown on the plan will change. Customers on previous plan version numbers will not be automatically upgraded to the newest version of the plan. Customers on previous plans will keep the features of their current hosting package. If a customer wishes to upgrade to the newest plan, a $15.00 admin fee will apply. Your hosting account may also need to be transferred to another server to take advantage of the newer features.

Account suspension
We reserve the right to suspend your account if you have an outstanding invoice or account. If your invoice or account remains unpaid, we reserve the right to cancel your entire account(s) and all products and services under it.

Your information may then be passed onto a collections agency for debt recovery, if for 60 days your account remains unpaid.

We reserve the right to suspend your account at any time for breaching our terms and conditions, for intiating in activities which may reduce the security of other web sites on our servers, or where Besthost.com.au (Besthost) has been given misleading or false information regarding the type of web site to be hosted or the customer information provided has been inaccurate or false.

If your acccount has been suspended or cancelled due to non-payment, Besthost.com.au (Besthost) will not provide support to the primary or secondary account holder until their account has been paid in full.

Misc Information
Microsoft Frontpage 98 extensions are not supported by our systems, as Microsoft has removed support for this version of frontpage. Frontpage Extensions 2000+ are supported.

Cancellation
Besthost.com.au (Besthost) reserves the right to cancel the account at any time. If your account has been terminated or suspended for breaching our terms and conditions, non-payment or where a formal complaint is received, no refunds will be given.

Any proof of misleading or giving false information to the company or its employees, including, threatening, extortion, harassment, improper conduct, abuse, swearing or other unlawful activities will lead to automatic cancellation of your account without refund. This can be email, live chat, telephone or in any form where staff are threatened, abused or mistreated.

If you have paid for a year's access and received a free domain name, the domain name remains with the property of the registered owner.

To cancel your account or products and services on your account, please login to My Account (found in the top menubar of our homepage) and submit a ticket to the "Service Removal" department. We require you fill out this form per our terms and conditions. Other requests to cancel your account are not considered official and our you will be redirected to the cancellation form to finalise your cancellation request. Please ensure your account is paid in full, otherwise the cancellation will not be successful. You must provide a minimum of 7 days notice prior to your product/service renewal date if you do not wish your product/service to renew.

Once you have cancelled your account, no further support resources will be provided by our staff in relation to products and services on your account, including domain names, web hosting, ssl, etc. We will not engage your account in any way once your account has been cancelled.

No refunds or credit will be given if you cancel your account or downgrade to a lower package. If you downgrade to a lower package a $15.00 charge applies.

Hosting, Domain names, SSL certificates, Site Studio and account add-ons are non-refundable.

If you have cancelled your hosting account with bESTHOST and would like to reactivate your account, a $25.00 administration fee will apply to cover the admin time involved in recreating your account and update our billing system.

Resource Usage
Users may not initiate the following:

Use 25% or more of system resources for longer then 90 seconds. There are numerous activities that could cause such problems; these include: CGI scripts, scripts, FTP, PHP, HTTP, Mail, etc.
Run any type of interactive real-time chat applications that require server resources. Remotely-hosted services are fully allowed.
Run stand-alone, unattended server-side processes at any point in time on the server. This includes any and all daemons, such as IRCD.
Run any software that interfaces with an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network.
Run any gaming servers such as counter-strike, half-life, battlefield1492, etc
Any activity which causes the server to crash / restart
Check their email more than every 3 minutes.
Bandwidth Usage / Disk Space
It is your responsibility to upgrade your account and monitor your 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 you will be required to upgrade to the next level plan of bandwidth usage and/or disk space.

Our system will automatically suspend your account if you exceed all of your allocated resources. We reserve the right to suspend the account until the start of the next allocation or until you upgrade to a higher level of package, terminate the account and/or charge you an additional fee for the overages.

Unused transfer in one month cannot be carried over to the next month.

Price Change
We reserve the right to change prices listed on Besthost.com.au (Besthost), and the right to increase the amount of resources given to plans. Customers will be notified by email before any price changes are implemented to their account. It is your responsibility to ensure your email address listed in our billing system is functional and working and can accept email from us.

Indemnification
Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold Besthost.com.au (Besthost) harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney's fees asserted against Besthost.com.au (Besthost), 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 Besthost.com.au (Besthost) against liabilities arising out of; (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with Besthost.com.au (Besthost); (2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights, legal and/or civil rights of a third party; (3) copyright infringement and (4) any defective products sold to customers from Besthost.com.au (Besthost)'s server. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) does not guarantee uptime.

By accessing any web site hosted on our network or servers, you understand, agree and are bound by this indemnification.

Disclaimer
Besthost.com.au (Besthost) will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. Besthost.com.au (Besthost) disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, no deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Besthost.com.au (Besthost) and its employees.

Changes to the Terms and Conditions
Besthost.com.au (Besthost) reserves the right to revise its policies from time to time without notice to you. By continued use of our services, you agree to and are bound by the updated terms and conditions, that can be accessed on our web site at any time.