This document was last modified on March 3, 2024.
1. General
Virtual Link Hosting Services Inc. (hereinafter “VLH“) employs an Acceptable Use Policy (hereinafter “AUP“) to maintain the integrity and performance of its network and computer equipment. Our AUP describes what is and is not allowed on our servers. By using any of our services, you agree to comply with our AUP. Failure to comply with the AUP may result in account suspension or termination without prior notice. VLH will remain the sole arbiter in what constitutes a breach of our AUP.
2. Illegal Activities
You may not use any of VLH’s services for any illegal purposes. You agree to comply with any and all applicable local, provincial, federal and international laws, government rules or requirements. You agree you will not be entitled to a refund of any fees paid to VLH if, for any reason, VLH takes corrective action with respect to your improper or illegal use of its services.
VLH reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as VLH deems necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, in VLH’s sole discretion. For our complete privacy policy, please consult at https://virtuallinkhosting/privacy-policy.
3. Spam Policy
VLH has a zero-tolerance spam policy. It is forbidden to send unsolicited mail from or to our servers under any circumstance. Penalties amounting to a minimum of 150.00$, plus taxes, can be charged for a first offense, and penalties double for repeat offenders.
4. Email Delivery
(a) Email services included with Hosting
VLH may supply email hosting services with some of our account plans. These plans are not designed to be used to send out large quantities of emails simultaneously. There is a limit of how many emails you can send per hour, per account. The number of emails per hour varies based on the plan you select, as described on the VLH website. Emails sent beyond the authorized limit will not be delivered. Mailing lists can have a maximum of 500 recipients. If you do send more than 25 emails at any given time, you must activate a “throttling” feature in your mailing application when sending, so that every delivery is delayed by a minimum of 10 seconds so as not to overcharge the server. You may not attempt to circumvent this limit by linking multiple hosting accounts together. If you would like to send larger quantities of legitimate commercial emails, please inquire with our sales team about our commercial Email Marketing service.
You may not send emails with attachments greater than 20 MB from Shared hosting accounts. If you need to share large files, you are encouraged to upload your files on your hosting account and email a hyperlink (“URL”) to the file.
Each mailbox must not exceed 2GB in total size. Clients using our email services are encouraged to download or archive their emails on a regular basis using software such as Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, or Thunderbird using the POP3 protocol, and deleting read emails from the server.
5. Resource Usage
(a) Processing Usage
In order to guarantee reliable service, accounts may not use more resources than what would be required by a regular web site in the course of its regular activities. Accounts found to be exceeding the allowed resource usage or suspected of running out-of-control processes may be suspended without prior notice in order to prevent serious service degradation. VLH will attempt to notify the client whenever possible and work with them to resolve any resource usage problem. Often, these types of problems may be resolved by repairing a faulty script, disabling a resource-intensive application, or banning malicious IP addresses from your account. Clients consistently using excessive resources may be required to transfer their account to a more appropriate service level to accommodate their usage profiles. VLH will contact you if excessive patterns emerge.
VLH server resources cannot be used for any other purpose than to serve data from your web sites. Under no circumstance can the server resources be resold, or used for data processing outside of the context of serving web pages or other web-accessible content to your site’s visitors.
(b) Disk Space Usage
Most of our plans provide a fixed disk space limits, we have established the following rules concerning the use of disk space on Web and Hubs Hosting accounts:
- You may not use your web hosting space to store files that are not directly related to your web or hubs site, and that are not linked to directly from at least one section of your site.
- You may not store more than 5,000 immediate files in any given folder (or directory), or more than the total files allowed by your hosting account at the time of payment for the service.
- You may not sell or offer free disk storage on our servers to third parties, outside of the context of our Reseller services.
6. Allowed Software and Scripts
All software and scripts installed on your account must be free of vulnerabilities, viruses, and malware. Any software having vulnerabilities documented on the Internet is strictly forbidden on our servers. It is your responsibility to update all the installed software with the latest security patches in a timely manner. On Shared Web Hosting servers, VLH provides automatic installation tools that can also handle automatic software updates shortly after updates are released by the vendors. However, it is ultimately solely your responsibility to maintain up-to-date versions of your software on your account.
Popular web applications such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, along with their plug-ins, modules, and add-ons, are particularly vulnerable to exploits due to their popularity, so additional vigilance must be used to ensure the software is safe and up-to-date.
Insecure scripts and software may be disabled by VLH at any time without prior notice to prevent issues with the server’s security.
7. Unlawful Conduct or Improper Use
You agree not to use VLH systems for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by this AUP, and you agree to comply with any applicable local, provincial, federal and international laws, government rules or requirements.
VLH reserves the right to terminate services, in its sole discretion, if you are using the services, in association with spam or morally objectionable activities including, but not limited to:
- Activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties;
- Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation, including Warez and any pirated content or tools;
- Transmission, distribution or storage of any material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, an invasion of privacy or constitutes an illegal threat, or is otherwise illegal;
- Misrepresenting or fraudulently representing products/services;
- Impersonating the identity of a third party;
- Illegal access to other computers or network (i.e. hacking) and distribution of Internet viruses or similar destructive activities;
- Violating Canadian or American export control laws for software or technical information;
- Facilitating, aiding, or encouraging any of the above activities, whether using VLH’s network or service by itself or via a third party’s network or service;
- Interference with a third party’s use of VLH’s network or service, or ability to connect to the Internet or provide services to Internet users.
The following uses of our servers are strictly forbidden:
- Proxy servers;
- Auto-surf sites;
- IRC Servers.
8. Adult Content
Explicit or pornographic content is strictly forbidden from Shared Hosting Accounts. Legal adult content is permitted on Dedicated or VPS servers.
9. Shell Access
Shell access is granted under certain accounts.
10. Downloads
You may not offer downloads of third-party software (i.e. software, games, or tools that were not directly created by you or for which you do not have an exclusive distribution agreement) from your hosting account. These are commonly referred to as “mirror” download sites. Instead, you are encouraged to link to the vendor’s original download site.
11. Violation
VLH will, at its own discretion, determine what action will be taken in case of a violation of the AUP. VLH reserves the right to suspend or terminate any account found to be violating the AUP without notice and without refund of any pre-paid fees. Violation of this AUP could also subject you to criminal or civil liability.
12. Rights reserve
VLH reserves the right to modify this AUP at any time without providing prior notice. You are responsible for all use of the VLH services by yourself, your employees, agents, contractors, invitees and customers, whether such use is with or without your consent.
13. Questions and Concerns
If you would like more information about VLH’s Acceptable Use Policy, please contact us via our helpdesk. We will deploy our best efforts to assist you.
14. How to Report Abuse
Please contact support@ or open a ticket in our helpdesk. Please ensure you include as much information as you can to assist our investigations. Complaints will be investigated within 24 hours of receipt and we may follow up to obtain additional information. Unless we require additional information, you will not receive a reply or update from us.
15. Severability
Should any provision of these Terms and Conditions be contrary to law, void, enforceable or illegal for any reason, such provision shall be deemed severable from the Terms and Conditions and shall not affect the validity or the enforceability of the remaining provisions.
16. Applicable Law and Jurisdiction
This Agreement and its interpretation are subject to the laws of the province of British Columbia and the laws of Canada applicable therein, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws. The Parties must irrevocably submit all disputes arising out of this Agreement to the courts of the Province of British Columbia, including disputes regarding the Agreement’s interpretation and its effects.
