All users of Novel Hosting's services, and all customers upon signing up for Novel Hosting's services, agree to comply with Novel Hosting's Terms of Use ("TOU"). The spirit of the TOU is to ensure customers are using Novel Hosting's services with due regard to the rights of other Internet users and in conformity with the requirements of Novel Hosting's network environment. Novel Hosting reserves the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of its TOU at any time without notice, effective upon either the posting of the modified TOU to www.novelhosting.com or notification of the modified TOU. Any complaints about a customer's violation of the TOU should be sent to abuse@novelhosting.com. The TOU supersedes any other agreement with Novel Hosting, whether written, oral, by conduct, or otherwise.
Server Resources
Any website that uses a high amount of server resources (such as, but not limited to, CPU time, memory usage, and network resources) will be given the option to either pay additional fees (which will depend on the resources required), reduce the resources used to an acceptable level, or upgrade its service to a Dedicated Server plan if dedicated servers are available. Novel Hosting will be the sole arbiter of what is considered to be a high server usage level. Any hosting account deemed to be adversely affecting server performance or network integrity will be shut down without prior notice.
Spamming
Sending unsolicited bulk and/or commercial messages over the Internet (known as "spamming") is prohibited, regardless of whether or not it overloads a server or disrupts service to Novel Hosting's customers. The term "spamming" also includes, but is not limited to, maintaining an open SMTP policy, engaging in spamming using the service of another ISP or IPP and referencing in the spam a website hosted on a Novel Hosting server, and selling or distributing software (on a website residing on a Novel Hosting server) that facilitates spamming. Violators will be assessed a minimum fine of $20 and could face immediate suspension. Novel Hosting reserves the right to determine, in its sole and absolute discretion, what constitutes a violation of this provision.
CGI Scripts
Any scripts that pose a potential security risk or are deemed to be adversely affecting server performance or network integrity will be shut down or will be automatically removed without prior notice.
Chat Rooms
Novel Hosting does not allow clients to install their own chat rooms. Chat rooms tend to require significant system resources and therefore cannot be permitted as an account option. However, clients are welcome to use their cPanel to enable the pre-installed chat clients.
Background Running Programs and Cron Jobs
Novel Hosting allows clients to run programs in the background via the cron option in cPanel. If these programs cause adverse system performance Novel Hosting will require the client to cease the use of those programs.
IRC
Novel Hosting does not allow IRC or IRC bots to be operated on its servers.
Multimedia Files
Multimedia files are defined as any graphics, audio, and video files. Novel Hosting accounts are not to be used for the purposes of distributing and storing unusual amounts of multimedia files. Any website whose disk space usage for storing multimedia files exceeds 70% of its total usage, in terms of total size or number of files, will be considered to be using an unusual amount of multimedia files.
Databases
Any database stored on Novel Hosting's servers will be limited in size to 10% of the total disk space allotted for that particular domain's hosting package before additional fees are incurred.
Summary of Unacceptable Content
- Warez and serial codes
- IRC
- Child pornography
- Copyrighted media, including but not limited to: Video, Music, TV, Radio
- Hacking tools or materials
- Anything that may harm us, the server, or anyone else.
Delinquent Accounts
Novel Hosting may temporarily suspend service or terminate its agreement upon failure of a client to pay charges when due. Such suspension or termination will not relieve the client of responsibility for the payment of all accrued service fees, or any collection fees. An late payment charge of $5.00, per week the account is past due, will be required with all late payments.
Delinquent Reseller Accounts
Should your reseller account become delinquent, and payment is not immediately made to Novel Hosting, resulting in a suspension of service you will have 48 hours to make restitution for the delinquent balance. Any reseller account left unpaid after 48 hours of suspension and reseller not contacting the Novel Hosting billing department to resolve the issue will allow for the reseller's clients to be able to purchase the hosting directly, and assume financial responsibility from that point forward. The balance must be paid entirely by the client prior to lifting the service suspension. Resellers shall not hold Novel Hosting responsible for failure to appropriately pay their invoices in a timely manor.
Credits
In the event that our network is accessible for less than 99.5% of a calendar month, measured in minutes, Novel Hosting will credit the monthly service charge for the service, as calculated below, with the maximum credit not to exceed the monthly service charge for the affected month:
Credit Amount
95% to 99.4% = 15%
90% to 94.9% = 30%
80% to 89.9% = 60%
79.9% or below = 100%
In order for you to receive a credit on your account, you must request such credit within four (4) business days after you experienced the inability to access our network. You, the account owner, must request credit by sending an email message to billing@novelhosting. For security, the body of this message must contain your account domain name, login name, the date and time of the unavailability of your website, and such other customer identification requested by Novel Hosting. Credits will be applied within sixty (60) days of your credit request. Credit to your account shall be your sole and exclusive remedy in the event that there is network downtime.
Restrictions
Credits shall not be provided to you in the event that you experienced downtime resulting from (i) scheduled maintenance, (ii) your behavior or the performance or failure of your equipment, facilities or applications, or (iii) circumstances beyond Novel Hosting's reasonable control, including, without limitation, acts of any governmental body, war, insurrection, sabotage, embargo, hurricane, fire, flood, strike or other labor disturbance, interruption of or delay in transportation, unavailability of interruption or delay in telecommunications or third party services (including DNS propagation), failure of third party software or hardware or inability to obtain raw materials, supplies, or power used in or equipment needed for provision of your website.
Limitations
Internet connectivity problems occur continuously throughout the world. There might come a time when you cannot access your website or any other internet service. This is not necessarily due to Novel Hosting. Perhaps your ISP is experiencing technical difficulties, or there might be a routing problem between your ISP and Novel Hosting, making communication difficult or impossible. We cannot bear the responsibility of such problems. Our monitoring technicians determine the uptime of our service, and not any one client's experience.