GCom Internet - Hosting Policies

GCom Internet and Zippy Hosting are wholly owned subsidiaries of Graaf Computer Systems Pty. Ltd., and represent the commercial internet and web hosting arms of that company. Within this document, GCom Internet, Zippy Hosting and Graaf Computer Systems Pty. Ltd. shall be accepted as interchangeable terms, representing the one ultimate commercial entity.

Fees, Invoices, Payments and Receipts

All accounts will be payable at the commencement of hosting and thereafter on each monthly anniversary. Apart from exceptions solely at the discretion of GCom Internet, all invoices, receipts and general communications will be forwarded monthly by email. Upon receipt by the Client of an invoice or other demand forwarded by GCom Internet, prepayment of an amount sufficient to bring the account into a credit balance equal to at least one full month's hosting fees will be required. GCom Internet will issue a receipt by email for all payments received from the Client.

For reasons of both security and avoidance of duplicative accounting handling, all invoicing and receipting documentation will be provided only to the primary account holder. A single, off-server administrative and billing email point of contact is required for each hosting account. It is the client's responsibility to keep GCom Internet advised of any changes to the administrative and billing contact email address. It is the Client's responsibility to ensure that invoices are being received each month and to advise GCom Internet in the event that same is not occurring.

Unpaid accounts will be subject to suspension one month after the issue of an invoice which remains unpaid. Unpaid accounts will be subject to full cancellation two months after the issue of an invoice which remains unpaid. Suspension and/or cancellation of an account will be at the sole discretion of GCom Internet. Suspended accounts may be reactivated after full payment is received for all amounts outstanding. Monthly hosting fees will continue to accumulate and be charged while accounts are suspended. Cancelled accounts will not be reactivated.

Because a sizeable component of our hosting for overseas clients includes goods or services which are delivered, made available, removed from, imported into, installed or assembled in Australia, we are liable to pay 1/11 of all gross web hosting revenue to the Australian Taxation Office under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) legislation. Accordingly, all invoices for both Australian and non Australian residents include a 10% GST component.

The Client agrees that from time to time GCom Internet will send electronic and/or physical mailouts to the Client.

Advanced Payments

At any time, if the Client so desires, the Client may pay an amount to bring the account into a credit balance in excess of one full month's hosting fees. In this case, subsequent invoices forwarded to the Client will be marked as "no payment required", or words to that effect, for so long as the account remains in credit.

GCom Internet will invoice only on a month to month basis, and will not issue invoices for amounts in excess of one one full month's hosting fees.

Refunds and Account Cancellation

Under no circumstances will a refund be provided to the Client by GCom Internet for any period for which hosting has already been provided. However, GCom Internet will issue a pro rata refund from the date of cancellation of an account to the date for which a prepayment has already been received. Notification of an account cancellation must be made by email, facsimile transmission, or standard post, and cancellation of the account will be effective from whichever may be the later of the date of receipt of the notification and any date of cancellation which may be specified by the Client. If the Client has a balance due at the effective date of cancellation, the balance remains payable as account cancellation does not absolve the Client's existing financial obligations.

Indemnification

The Client agrees to use all GCom Internet services and facilities at its own risk. To the maximum extent permissable by law, GCom Internet specifically disclaims all warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall GCom Internet be liable for any loss, or loss of data, or other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. The customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold GCom Internet harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including but not limited to reasonable legal fees asserted against GCom Internet, its agents, its customers, its officers and its employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by the Client, its agents, its employees or its assigns

Spam Policy

GCom Internet takes a zero tolerance approach to the sending of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or spam over its network. Very simply this means that Clients of GCom Internet may not use or permit others to use its network to transact in UCE. The Client may not host, or permit hosting of, sites or information that is advertised by UCE from other networks. Violations of this policy carry severe penalties, including termination of service.

Upon notification of an alleged violation of the spam policy, GCom Internet will initiate an immediate investigation. During the investigation, GCom Internet may restrict the Client's access to the network to prevent further violations. If the Client is found to be in violation of the spam policy, GCom Internet may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend or terminate the Client's account. Further, GCom Internet reserves the right to pursue civil remedies for any costs associated with the investigation of a substantiated policy violation. GCom Internet will notify law enforcement officials if the violation is believed to be a criminal offence.

Clients who violate this policy agree that they will pay research fees not to exceed AU$88 per hour for each hour or part thereof which GCom Internet personnel must spend in investigating the matter. Severe violations of this policy will result in the immediate termination of the Client's account and may incur an administrative fee of up to AU$1500.

We consider UCE or spam to be any email message for which a spam complaint is raised by a message recipient, and where the Client can not produce proof of double opting in on the part of that recipient.

Quite simply, to avoid any problems or costs, do not spam from, through, or in connection with your GCom Internet account.

Zippy Hosting is in the business of web hosting - not smtp hosting. It is neither appropriate nor acceptable for our web hosting servers to be used as a point of email origin for anything other than low level mail despatch from web based applications. Such acceptable applications would include general feedback and online order forms.

If you have any complaints or comments regarding spam on our network, please direct them via email to .

Content Policy

All services provided by GCom Internet may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any Australian or USA law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, copyrighted material, trademark, intellectual property, material judged to be threatening or obscene, or material protected by trade secret and other statute without proper authorization. The Client agrees to indemnify and hold harmless GCom Internet from any claims resulting from the use of the service which damages the Client or any other party. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

Pornography and related merchandising is prohibited on all GCom Internet servers. This includes sites that may imply pornographic content, or links to pornographic content elsewhere. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

Also prohibited are sites that promote any illegal activity or present content that may be damaging to GCom Internet servers or any other server on the internet. Links to such materials are also prohibited. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

Examples of unacceptable content or links:

• Pirated Software
• Hacker Programs or Archives
• Warez Sites
• Illegal MP3s
• General Pornography
• Child Pornography

GCom Internet is in the business of providing primary web hosting services both to resellers and for virtual accounts. We do not allow the use of our services to promote the use of other primary web hosting companies who are our competitors. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

General Server Abuse Policy

For the benefit of all Clients and to maintain a quality service, GCom Internet reserves the right to suspend any domain without any notice if that domain is found to be using too much of the server's resources and therefore abusing the server. In such an instance it is the Client's responsibility to contact GCom Internet to formulate a strategy to allow the domain to be reactivated. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

Scripts Policy

Subject to any and all provisions of this document, the Client is free to install server side scripts as required for the operation of its website only so long as the concerned scripts are not included in the following list:

• UltimateBBS (all versions)
• Ikonboard (all versions)
• YABB and YABB se (all versions)
• Greymatter (all versions)
• IRC Egg Drops and IRC related programs. (chat software)
• Proxy Servers
• nph-proxy
• The Anonymizer
• formmail.pl other than NMS version
• lstmrge.cgi
• Shell, SSH, Telnet Scripts and Shell, SSH, Telnet Alternatives
• Any script that processes a massive number of flat files or large flat file databases.
• Any script that requires a "register_globals = on" directive.
• Any script that facilitates the exploitation of our servers in any way.

Further to the above, GCom Internet reserves the right to disable any script, or terminate any site, which it considers to be affecting normal server operation or service to other Clients, or which represents a general risk to our servers. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

Chat Policy

GCom Internet does not allow chat rooms to be hosted on its servers under any circumstances. However, the Client is free to link its site to a third party chat provider such as www.humanclick.com, www.liveperson.com, and www.livehumanhelp.com.

Backup Policy

In general, full server backups are made weekly, and incremental backups of new and changed data are made nightly. However, absolutely no guarantees are made of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the integrity of these backups. Backups are made for server restoration purposes only in the case of large scale data loss occurring on a server for any reason including but not limited to hardware failure, software failure, server hacking and general data vandalism. Please take note that it is solely the Client's responsibility to maintain local copies of its web content and any associated files including but not limited to scripts, data files, databases and other ancillary files.

The Client acknowledges and agrees that data may be lost or corrupted in connection with the use of the service and acknowledges that GCom Internet shall have no liability to the Client in the event that all data is lost or destroyed. The Client acknowledges and agrees that in the event restoration of data from backup is necessary, it may take several days to complete such restoration of data and resume operation of the service.

Support Policy

GCom Internet supports a large number of personal and commercial sites, and for reasons of both economy and efficiency it is no longer possible to accept telephone or front counter enquiries as a first resort for any problems which the Client may encounter. On all occasions, without exception, Client support requests must intially be raised by email to . In the unlikely event that GCom Internet is unable to provide an adequate answer by email, the Client will be invited to telephone or visit GCom Internet's offices to discuss the issue more fully. Support requests raised by telephone or front counter contact will not be entertained.

GCom Internet provides support for technical, server related matters only. No support is provided for matters related to site design, search engine optimisation, script installation, debugging or software configuration. It is the Client's responsibility to have, or obtain, a good working knowledge of internet related tools and procedures. GCom Internet provides technical hosting services and should not be regarded as a general support service.

GCom Internet provides support only to its own direct Clients. For reasons of both security and avoidance of duplicative support handling, no support will be provided to any third party. Support will be provided only to the primary account holder. A single, off-server administrative and billing email point of contact is required for each hosting account.

Overselling Policy (resellers only)

GCom Internet allows its reseller Clients to oversell their server resources, but only so long as GCom Internet feels that a Client's account is not being oversold to an extent which is, or is likely to be, creating a risk of server abuse. For the benefit of all Clients and to maintain a quality service, in such an instance GCom Internet reserves the right to upgrade the account through consultation with the Client. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

Unlimited Space and Bandwidth Policy (resellers only)

For the benefit of all Clients and to maintain a quality service, GCom Internet reserves the right to refuse service, or discontinue service, to any Client found to be using its account to market or promote unlimited disk space and/or unlimited data transfer hosting accounts. GCom Internet takes this rule extremely seriously and will have no hesitation in enforcing same. GCom Internet will be the sole arbiter in determining violations of this provision.

Additional Sundry Policies:

GCom Internet reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason not prohibited by law.

GCom Internet reserves the right to terminate service to any Client for any reason not prohibited by law.

GCom Internet reserves the right to modify this document and these policies at any time.