Acceptable Use Policy

Illegal and Harmful Activity

1. SPAM and Unsolicited Email

1.1. Policy Overview

Sending unsolicited communication (including, but not limited to, email, instant messaging, SMS, chat rooms, discussion boards and newsgroups) is not permitted via xneelo’s network.

Regardless of how the recipient’s email address was acquired, communication is considered unsolicited if:

• It was not explicitly requested or consented to by the recipient.
• The recipient would not reasonably expect to receive it as a result of an existing relationship.

This applies to communication sent to both personal and company email addresses, for example, sales@companyxyz.co.za. Email communication that does not clearly originate from a consensual sender, or which appears to come from a third party or affiliate, is also considered unsolicited.

1.2. Examples of Unsolicited Communication

The following are examples of unsolicited communication and include, but are not limited to:

• Purchasing mailing lists, “safe lists”, and harvesting of email addresses, where the users of those email addresses have not explicitly agreed to receive communication from a specified consensual sender, is considered unsolicited.
• Sending emails to recipients who must opt out of receiving further emails they didn’t originally request is considered unsolicited.
• Sending a once-off invitation to receive further information, which was not explicitly requested or consented to by the recipient, is considered unsolicited.
• Email communication to a mailing list, including addresses of unwilling recipients or a recipient who has indicated that they wish to be removed from such a list, yet continues to receive unwanted emails after a reasonable period, is considered unsolicited.

1.3. Your Responsibilities

As a mailing list operator, you should:

• Maintain meaningful records of recipient consent and record when and how email addresses were obtained.
• Provide a clear and functional option for recipients to unsubscribe from future communications.
• Ensure that your collection and use of personal information, and all electronic communications, comply with applicable data protection and electronic communications laws, including but not limited to the Protection of Personal Information Act (“POPIA”) and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (“ECTA”), and where applicable, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

1.4. How We Assess and Respond To Abuse

When xneelo receives a spam complaint, we may request verification that the recipient agreed to receive communications, including the date and location where their email address was recorded.

xneelo reserves the right to suspend or terminate any account found to be sending unsolicited email, with or without notice, in accordance with xneelo’s Terms of Service.

If you violate this policy, you may be held liable for any costs incurred by xneelo, including monetary and reputational damages. xneelo reserves the right to recover any costs associated with blacklist removal. The determination of such costs is at xneelo’s discretion.

1.5. Use of Third-Party Services

The use of any other service to send SPAM with any reference to xneelo services (including, but not limited to, mailboxes, autoresponders, spamvertizing and webpages) is also grounds for suspension or termination.

If your website was compromised and/or exploited and used to send unsolicited communications, xneelo may be more lenient in resolving the issue; however, if the same website or account is compromised two or more times within a six-month period, this may result in suspension or termination. 

For further information, please read our FAQ on Spam Abuse

2. Internet Abuse

2.1. Prohibited Conduct 

You may not use xneelo’s network to engage in illegal, abusive, or irresponsible behaviour. This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Unauthorised access to or use of data, services, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to break security or authentication measures without express authorisation of the owner of the system or network.

• Monitoring data or traffic on any network or system without the authorisation of the owner of the system or network.
• Interference with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks.
• Use of an Internet account or computer without the owner’s authorisation.
• Collecting information by deceit, including, but not limited to, Internet scamming (tricking other people into releasing their passwords), password robbery, phishing, security hole scanning, and port scanning.
• Use of xneelo’s service to distribute software that covertly gathers information about a user or covertly transmits information about the user.
• Any activity or conduct that is likely to result in retaliation against our network.
• Any activity or conduct that is likely to be in breach of any applicable laws, codes or regulations.
• Introducing intentionally or knowingly into xneelo’s service any virus or other contaminating program, or failing to use an up-to-date virus-scanning program on all material downloaded from the Web.
• Forging email or other messages is forbidden. 
• Trafficking in pirated software is forbidden. 
• Port scanning or the use of similar tools is forbidden.
• Use of xneelo services to publish or otherwise disseminate information about the availability of pirated software or other material that is being made available illegally, including the publication of a list of links to such material, regardless of disclaimers, is specifically forbidden. 

xneelo does not condone illegal material or unlawful behaviour.

2.2. Monitoring and Response

Compliance with the acceptable use policies of any network or system you connect to through our service is required. 

If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of the user in question will be deactivated until the investigation is complete. Prior notification to the user cannot be guaranteed. In extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity.

3. Offensive Content

3.1. Prohibited Content

At xneelo, we promote a safe and positive environment for all users. As such, we kindly ask that content shared on our Hosting Systems adhere to our guidelines by avoiding the following types of content or links to such content, which may include but are not limited to:

• “Hate” sites or content are considered discriminatory in any way, including but not limited to discrimination based on sex, race, or age.
• Content that is defamatory or violates a person’s privacy.
• Content that is pornographic, sexually explicit, or contains gratuitous violent content.
• Content that involves theft, fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, or terrorism. 
• Content that is illegal, including stolen or unauthorised copyrighted material. 
• Pirated software sites.
• Illegal gambling sites.

3.2. Monitoring and Response

If xneelo identifies that any customer content may be in violation of applicable legal requirements or this policy, xneelo may take one or more of the following actions to address the situation:

• Request the customer to immediately remove such content; and/or
• Require the customer to modify such content; and/or
• Without notice, suspend or terminate access to any services; and/or
• Without notice, delete the offending content; and/or
• Notify the relevant authorities of the existence of such content (if required by law or otherwise), make any backup, archive or other copies of such material as may be required by such authorities, disclose such elements of the customer’s data as may be requested by the authorities and take such further steps as may be required by such authorities.

Platform and Account Misuse

4. Abuse of Account Features

4.1. Prohibited Use

The following activities are strictly prohibited, including but not limited to:

• Operating any service which makes an account feature available to third parties for any use other than normal access to that account’s website.
• Operating any service that enables or assists anonymous or abusive behaviour by third parties.
• Operating any service that affects the stability or reliability of any xneelo server or network component.
• Operating any service that negatively impacts other users or xneelo, or degrades the quality of service.
• Reselling Multiple Domains on xneelo’s Web Hosting packages to a third party is not allowed. Multiple Domains are to be used solely for the Profile Owner’s own websites.

All account features are to be used solely in order to develop and implement the website associated with that account.

5. Server-side Processes

5.1. General Restrictions

The following restrictions apply:

• The installation or operation of any stand-alone, unattended server-side process (daemons) on xneelo servers is not permitted, except for cron jobs as described in section 4.3. above.
• The use of servers or Cloud resources for any cryptocurrency mining activities is prohibited on Cloud and Self-Managed Server products.
• These restrictions do not apply to xneelo Managed Servers, provided that such processes do not interfere with xneelo’s ability to manage the server on the customer’s behalf. 

Any violation of this policy may result in immediate termination of the account without prior notice.

5.2. Why this Exists

These restrictions exist for several reasons, including but not limited to:

• Protecting the CPU and memory resources available on each server.
• Protecting and enhancing system security by preventing unapproved third-party programs from accepting connections from external sources.

5.3. Monitoring and Response

Managed Servers running at a continued high load pose a serious risk to the stability and ongoing operation of the servers. Our internal automated monitoring system alerts us to such instances. We will notify you once we receive these alerts and provide guidance on what approach to take to remedy the situation.

If the high load persists following three notifications over an extended period, for example, over seven days, indicating that the load is continuous or peaks daily for a significant portion of the day, you will be required to alleviate the strain on the server resources. 

To ensure continued service stability, you will be required to:

• Upgrade the Managed Server; or
• Purchase an additional server to distribute the load; or
• Migrate specific accounts to a shared hosting package or Volume Plan

If no action is taken, xneelo may apply service restrictions or require a mandatory upgrade to protect platform stability.

6. Security

6.1. Keeping your account secure

Your security responsibilities

• xneelo customers must take reasonable security precautions. Negligence could result in hacking of websites and compromised mailboxes due to vulnerable PCs, outdated website software, or weak passwords, affecting other xneelo customers through blacklisting, phishing, or spamming.
• It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that scripts/programs installed under their account are secure (using the latest version) and that directory permissions are set properly, regardless of the installation method. 
• Users are ultimately responsible for all actions taken under their account, including the compromise of credentials such as usernames and passwords.

Password requirements 

• Customers must use secure passwords. When a password is identified as weak, xneelo will notify the customer and allow a reasonable time to change or update the password.
• Failure to change a weak password that results in a website or service being compromised may lead to the suspension or termination of the customer’s account. Passwords should:
  • Consists of at least 11 characters.
  • Include a mix of alphabetic and numeric characters, with case variation.
  • Not consist of common words.
  • Be changed regularly.
• In the event of abuse or security risk, xneelo reserves the right to reset a password.

Resource and Fair Use

7. Shared Systems and Resource Usage

7.1. General Usage Principles

Customers hosting on our shared environment may not use any shared system provided by xneelo in a way that interferes with the normal operation of the shared system or consumes a disproportionate share of the system’s resources. For example, excessive server hits, excessive bandwidth or disk usage, or inefficient scripts or database queries may compromise other users of the shared hosting environment. 

Where excessive resource usage negatively impacts other customers, xneelo is authorised to suspend the affected account. In most cases, the examples below do not apply to xneelo Managed Servers.

7.2. Process and Execution Limits on Shared Servers

Users may not, through a cron job, CGI script, interactive command, or any other means, initiate the following on xneelo’s shared servers:

• Run any process that requires more than 50MB of memory space.
• Run any program that requires more than 30 CPU seconds.
• Run more than 10 simultaneous processes.
• Send out mail to more than 500 recipients (email addresses) within one hour. 500 recipients represent one of the following: 500 recipients for one email, 500 individual emails or a combination of the two.
• Send or receive, through mail, any file larger than 20MB.

Should we discover that a customer is performing bulk mail runs on our shared systems that exceed the limit communicated above, regardless of whether they constitute SPAM, xneelo will deactivate the user’s account.

7.3. Controlled Services and Applications on Shared Servers

CGI Scripts and Server-side Execution

• Custom server-side CGI scripts are to be run only by users with the appropriate package types (in xneelo’s case, the Web Hosting Basic package or higher). 
• A user may run CGI scripts for the benefit of external sites or services. The use of system resource limits is intended to prevent runaway CGI scripts on an unattended server. Also, processes with large memory footprints or high CPU requirements will incur swapping and other slowdowns, affecting every site on the server.

Interactive Applications

• Interactive web applications, commonly referred to as ‘chat’ applications, are not permitted on xneelo’s shared systems. These applications are better placed on Managed Servers.

MySQL Database Usage

• MySQL databases are provided to customers on the Web Hosting Basic package and higher, subject to the following conditions:

• The number of databases linked to a web hosting package is limited to the allocated quota as published in the product matrix.
• Each individual database is allocated up to 5GB of disk space.
• Customers are responsible for ensuring that their databases remain within the permitted size limits.
• If a database exceeds the web hosting package’s allocated quota, xneelo may require the customer to take corrective action within 30 (thirty) days. Where no action is taken within the specified period, xneelo reserves the right to take enforcement action without further notice.
• Databases may not be used to circumvent package disk allowances by storing websites in them.
• Databases may only be used in conjunction with xneelo-hosted packages. Access to databases from outside our local network is provided strictly for site and database development.
• A maximum of 10 concurrent MySQL connections per database user is allowed.
• Databases may not be used to store binary files (including but not limited to image and application files). The database should reference the image on the user’s site rather than storing it, i.e., these files should be stored within the user account and referenced in the database via a link.
• xneelo reserves the right to require changes to database usage where it adversely affects a database server or other user databases. Where necessary, xneelo may migrate a database to another server or, in extreme cases, disable a database that is harming server performance.

Cron Jobs

• The use of “cron jobs” (processes that are run automatically at certain times, in accordance with a “crontab” file set up by each user) is allowed on xneelo servers, subject to the following conditions and restrictions:
  • To be used only by customers of the Web Hosting Basic package and higher.
  • The job must not execute more often than every two hours.
  • If a cron job is likely to consume excessive CPU usage, it should be given a lower CPU priority.
• Resource limits are enforced by automatic monitoring systems. This does not apply to Managed Servers, provided it does not interfere with xneelo’s ability to manage the server on the customer’s behalf.

8. Disk usage

8.1. General Principles

xneelo’s hosting services are designed primarily for website hosting and related services. They are not intended for personal storage facilities, mass storage, or long-term archiving. All content stored must be directly related to the website(s) hosted. Accounts with excessive disk usage or large numbers of files may adversely affect server performance and other xneelo customers.

8.2. Web Hosting, Volume Plan, and Managed Servers

The following limits apply across all hosting plans:

• Mailboxes that accumulate large volumes of email and are not accessed for 12 months are not permitted, including catch-all or bounce mailboxes.
• Email older than five years may not be stored on the server.
• While individual package disk quotas apply, the upper limit for all hosting packages is 200 GB.
  • This limit is in place to maintain the stability and performance of the shared hosting environment for the benefit of all customers
  • Where an account reaches or exceeds this 200 GB limit, the account holder will be contacted. 
  • We will provide guidance and alternative solutions for storage and hosting needs, as this level of usage exceeds the design parameters of our shared hosting products. 
  • Excessive continued use may be addressed in accordance with this policy, including provisions on resource use and potential account modification or suspension.
  • These limits apply only to shared disk quotas and do not factor in database storage, with a limit of 5GB per database still applicable (see clause 7.3).

Limits applicable to Shared Servers and Volume Plan Only

• In addition to the above, the following file count limits apply to Shared Hosting and Volume Plan
  • A maximum of 200,000 files (i.e. an email, webpage, image file, directory, etc.) per account, or 
  • A maximum of 50,000 files per directory. 

Accounts exceeding these limits may have caused files or directories to be excluded from xneelo’s backup system.

Limits applicable to Managed Servers only

• To maintain file system performance on Managed Servers, inode limits are set at 500,000 per account and 100,000 per directory.

8.3. Disk Usage Monitoring and Quotas

xneelo’s Web Hosting packages include defined disk usage quotas. Disk usage is monitored and managed through an automated system that tracks usage, issues notifications when a server reaches critical levels, and applies charges where applicable. 

In addition:

• Automated alerts are sent to the Account Owner and Technical Administrator when a partition reaches 95% capacity.
• Customers can view and manage their disk usage and may configure additional disk-usage notifications via the Disk Usage Tool in the xneelo Control Panel.
• It is your responsibility to maintain sufficient available disk space.

9. Traffic Usage

9.1. Web Hosting

Xneelo’s Web Hosting products, including our Web Accelerator and Security Product Suites, do not have fixed traffic quotas. Traffic usage is, however, subject to monitoring and network management measures as described in clause 9.2 below.

These products are intended for standard web hosting purposes and may not be used primarily for:

• Online file storage or archiving of electronic files.
• High-volume video streaming.
• Multimedia distribution that generates high traffic patterns that materially exceed typical product usage or negatively impact network performance.

Learn more about our unlimited traffic policy for Web Hosting packages here. 

9.2. Traffic Monitoring, Rate Limiting and Restricted Use

(Applicable across Web Hosting, Managed Servers, Self-Managed Servers, Cloud and Colocation services)

Restricted services

• To protect network stability, security, and fair usage, certain services may not be hosted on our Managed Servers, Self-Managed Servers, Cloud, and Colocation platform without prior written approval from xneelo. Examples of restricted services include, but are not limited to:
  • Public mirroring or replication services intended for general public access.
  • Services designed to route, relay, proxy, tunnel, or forward network traffic between networks or endpoints, including VPN services, proxy services, STUN/TURN servers, TOR nodes, or similar relays.
  • Services that redistribute or resell bandwidth, network capacity, or connectivity to third parties or end-users.
  • Any setup where traffic originating from a Colocation environment is routed through a Self-Managed or Cloud Server to reach the internet (or vice versa).

Traffic monitoring and rate limiting

• While xneelo services do not have fixed traffic quotas, we monitor upload and download volumes to identify traffic patterns that materially exceed typical product usage or negatively impact network performance.
• Where applicable, rate limiting may be imposed to maintain optimal network stability and integrity. Rate limiting only affects connection speed and does not limit overall upload and download volumes or connection time. 
• Xneelo is not liable for any loss or damage resulting from connection speed restrictions applied under this policy.

Traffic reporting

• Traffic usage information is provided per IP address for Managed Servers, Self-Managed Servers and Colocation services. Excessive usage will be flagged with the customer. As a result, aggregated traffic usage across multiple servers is not supported.

All customers are required to comply with this policy to preserve xneelo’s server and network performance for the benefit of all customers.

For specific traffic or usage requirements, please contact support@xneelo.com

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