General Use Policies   |  Billing Policy  |  Refund Policy  |  Privacy Policy

At Vantage Internet Services, we value our customers and wish to provide them with a positive experience. To offer you the best service possible, all customers need to follow the same rules and guidelines. These policies are intended to make Vantage's service both consistent and efficient for all of our customers.

User-Supplied Content
All services may be used for lawful purposes only. Through Vantage's service, you may have access to chat areas, bulletin boards, web pages, email, or other services that enable you to send or post materials ("content") and make that content available to others. You must not submit, publish, or display on the network any defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, obscene, infringing, or threatening content. In addition, you may not submit, publish, or display any content that violates any United States Federal, State, or Local Law. You are solely responsible for the content you make accessible through the Vantage Network. You may not use the service to assist any other person or entity to violate any Federal, State, or Local Laws, Ordinances, or Regulations.

Vantage is not obligated to monitor the network to examine available content. You hereby acknowledge that if we are made aware of content that is determined to be, in its sole discretion, unacceptable, undesirable, offensive, indecent, obscene, excessively violent, or otherwise objectionable, Vantage has the right, but not the obligation, to edit, remove, or deny access to such content. Vantage may disclose any content or records concerning a customer's account as required to satisfy any Law, Regulation, Governmental Request, or Court Order.

Pornography and sex-related merchandising are prohibited on all Vantage servers. This includes sites that may infer sexual content, display nudity, or link to adult content elsewhere. This is also true for sites that promote any illegal activity or content that may be damaging to Vantage's servers or any other server on the Internet. Links to such materials are also prohibited. In addition, any site selling or promoting bulk email service is not allowed. Below are some examples of unacceptable content or links:

• Adult Sites - Any erotic or pornographic material, links to adult sites, or advertisements for adult sites.
   

• Pirated Software (Warez) - Any software that is copyrighted and not freely available for distribution without cost: i.e. ROMs, ROM Emulators, and MPEG Layer 3 files (MP3s).
   

• Copyright Violations - Violation of copyrights held by individuals and corporations or other entities can result in civil and criminal liability for the infringer.
   

• Hacking/Phreaking - Includes sites with material, links, or resources for hacking, phreaking, viruses, anarchy, or any type of site that promotes or participates in willful harm to Internet sites or providers.

Network Security
Customers may not use the Vantage Network with an attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account. This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for the customer, logging into a server or account the customer is not expressly authorized to access, password cracking, probing the security of other networks in search of weakness, or violation of any other organization's Security Policy. Customers may not attempt to interfere or deny service to any user, host, or network. This includes, but is not limited to, flooding, mail bombing, or other deliberate attempts to overload or crash a host or network. Vantage will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with Law Enforcement Authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations. Users who violate system or network security may incur criminal or civil liability.

Scripts
Customers are free to use any scripts provided with their account or add any additional ones they require. Any scripts deemed to be adversely affecting the server performance or the network integrity may be shut down without prior notice. script sharing with domains not hosted by Vantage is not allowed.

Chat Rooms
Vantage prohibits its customers from installing outside chat rooms on their domain, as these tend to be a resource problem. Vantage does provide its customers a choice of java chat rooms to choose from for a nominal monthly charge. These chat rooms were designed to meet the growing needs of customers and function without hindering the performance of the servers for others.

Server Resources
Any Web site that uses a high amount of server resources (such as, but not limited to CPU time, memory usage, and network resources) will be given an option of either upgrading their service level or reducing the resource used to an acceptable level.

Background Running Programs
Background Daemons in general are prohibited. Vantage will consider requests on a per application basis. If allowed, extra charges will be assessed based on resource requirements for system maintenance.

IRC
Vantage prohibits its customers from operating IRC or IRC Bots on any of the servers in the Vantage Network.

Backups / Restores
As a courtesy, Vantage provides a weekly backup service on shared hosting accounts. You can request our administrators to run a backup of your site or any files for a one-time charge. Although Vantage tries to ensure these backups are complete and accurate, we cannot guarantee data integrity. It is possible that a site and/or file may not be able to be restored without our knowledge. Vantage recommends that the customer periodically and frequently backup their site to their local computer. On most accounts there is a backup manager that can assist you in this process. A backup may not be included with a dedicated server type plan. We recommend that dedicated server customers purchase a backup option to protect data.

Commercial Advertising/Mass Mailings
You must not use the Vantage Network, Vantage equipment, or any Vantage email address in connection with the transmission of spam, flames, mail bombs, or substantially similar, unsolicited email messages. Your domain may not be referenced as originator, intermediary, or reply-to address in any of the above. This prohibition extends to the sending of unsolicited mass mailings from another service that in any way implicates the use of the Vantage Network, Vantage equipment or any Vantage email address. A message is considered unsolicited if it is posted in violation of a newsgroup charter or if it is sent to a recipient who has not requested or invited the message. For purposes of this provision, merely making one's email address accessible to the public will not constitute a request or invitation to receive messages.

If you are found to have spammed, without warning, Vantage reserves the right to disable your domain. In addition, Vantage may impose a $100 penalty for each spam policy violation. Vantage solely reserves the right to refuse or cancel service to known spammers. Lastly, Vantage reserves the right to determine what violates this policy. As such, any violation may result in cancellation of services without refund.

Customers of Vantage Internet Services are to use our email services as a means of transport between themselves and their recipients. Our shared email servers are neither storage servers nor bulk email servers for your use. For this reason each account is limited to 120 connections per hour, 1500 emails per day and no more than 500 in any one hour period. Also we are not responsible for any loss of emails if you abuse this policy as we reserve the right to purge an Inbox if that email account is using more than 50 MB of space. This policy is in effect because of the sheer risk of what email can do to a shared server. A memory/CPU overload and lack of server resources may cause several sites to appear offline and loose business.

Distribution and/or transmission of obscene, indecent speech or materials violation of indecency and obscenity laws can result in criminal penalties.

Intellectual Property Rights
Material accessible to you through Vantage's services may be subject to protection under the United States or other copyright laws, or laws protecting trademarks, trade secrets, or proprietary information. Except when expressly permitted by the owner of such rights, you must not use the Vantage service in a manner that would infringe, violate, dilute, or misappropriate any such rights, with respect to any material which you access or receive through the Vantage Network. If you use a domain name in connection with the Vantage service or similar service, you must not use that domain name in violation of any trademark, service mark, or similar rights of any third party.

Defamation
Defamatory speech distributed over the Internet can result in civil liability for the defamer.

Refusal of Service
Vantage reserves the right at its sole discretion to refuse or cancel service. Violation of any of Vantage's rules and regulations could result in a warning, suspension, or possible account termination. Accounts terminated due to policy violations will not be refunded.

Indemnification
Customer agrees that it will protect, indemnify, save, and hold Vantage harmless from any and all stipulations, liabilities, losses, expenses, and claims, as well as reasonable attorney's fees assessed against Vantage, its agents, customers, officers, employees, and administration that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by its customers, agents, employees, or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold Vantage harmless against liabilities arising out of: (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or distributed in association with Vantage's services; (2) any material furnished by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party; (3) copyright violation and any defective products sold to a customer from Vantage's services.

Disclaimer
Vantage will not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. Vantage makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, for services we provide. Vantage disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by Vantage and its employees. Vantage reserves the right to amend or update these policies without notice. Failure to follow any terms and conditions may result in account deactivation.

Vantage furthermore expects that its customers who provide Internet services to others will fully comply with all applicable laws concerning the privacy of online communications. A customer's failure to comply with those laws will violate this policy. Finally, Vantage wishes to emphasize that in accepting services, customers indemnify Vantage for the violation of any law or Vantage policy that results in loss to Vantage or the bringing of any claim against Vantage. This means that if Vantage is sued because of activities of the customer that violate any law, or this policy, the customer will pay any damages awarded against Vantage, plus costs and reasonable attorneys' fees.

General Use Policies   |  Billing Policy  |  Refund Policy  |  Privacy Policy