Accepatable Use Policy

ANY WEBSITE, ACCOUNT, DATABASE, OR OTHER COMPONENT THAT DOES NOT ADHERE TO OUR SET POLICIES MAY BE REQUESTED TO BE CHANGED OR DISABLED AS APPROPRIATE. DARKMATTER ALSO MAINTAINS THE RIGHT TO REQUEST CHANGES OR DISABLE ANY SUCH COMPONENTS IN AN EMERGENCY AT OUR SOLE DISCRETION. THIS POLICY IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY MOMENT TO MEET THE EVOLVING NEEDS OF OUR CLIENTS, OUR COMPANY, THE INTERNET ENVIRONMENT, AND THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT. WE ADVISE OUR CLIENTS TO REVIEW THIS POLICY FREQUENTLY.

IF YOU FEEL YOU HAVE DISCOVERED A VIOLATION OF ANY AREA OF THIS POLICY, PLEASE LET US KNOW BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO [email protected].

1. Unsolicited Emails And Spam

It is prohibited to send unsolicited commercial communication via the DarkMatter network and/or servers, including but not limited to email, instant messaging, SMS, chat rooms, discussion forums, and newsgroups.

Regardless of how the recipient’s email address was obtained, email communication is regarded as unsolicited if the recipient did not specifically request or consent to receiving it, or if the recipient would not have anticipated receiving it as a result of an existing relationship. This rule applies to communication sent to both personal and business email addresses, such as [email protected]. Unsolicited email is defined as correspondence that does not clearly originate from a consenting sender or that looks to be from a third party or affiliate.

Examples of unsolicited communication:

1. Unsolicited mail is sent out using purchased mailing lists, “safe lists,” and email addresses that have been harvested from people who haven’t explicitly requested to hear from a certain consensual sender. Unsolicited email is defined as any email that requires the recipient to opt-out of receiving future messages that they did not request. It is deemed unsolicited to send a one-time invitation to learn more about a subject without the recipient’s express request or approval. Email communication to a mailing list including unintentional receivers’ names or to a recipient who has requested to be removed from the list but who still receives unsolicited emails after a reasonable amount of time is regarded as unsolicited.
2. Operators of mailing lists should keep accurate records of recipient requests and permissions to receive particular email communications. The receiver should also have the choice to stop receiving future email correspondence.
3. DarkMatter and it's partners may ask you to confirm whether the recipient agreed to receive messages from you and, if so, when and where you recorded their email address in order to determine if the communication was unsolicited when we receive a spam complaint.
4. In accordance with our hosting partner general Terms and Conditions, DarkMatter and it's partners maintains the right to suspend or cancel the account of any user who sends unsolicited email, sometimes known as spam, with or without prior warning.
5. If you violate this policy while a DarkMatter customer or client, you will be responsible for all monetary and reputational losses experienced by DarkMatter and/or it's partners. DarkMatter and/or it's partners retains the right to levy a clean-up fee or any costs associated with blacklist removal to the owner of the account used to send any unwanted email. The amount of the clean-up fee is totally up to DarkMatter’s and/or it's partners discretion.
6. Use of any other service, including but not limited to mailboxes, autoresponders, and Web pages, for the purpose of sending SPAM with any mention of DarkMatter services may also result in suspension or termination as stated above. DarkMatter and/or it's partners will be more forgiving in correcting the problem if your website was compromised and used to distribute unsolicited messages. The same website and/or customer account being misused repeatedly would, however, be grounds for suspension or termination.

2. Offensive Content

Any of the following content, or links to such content, are not permitted by DarkMatter and/or it's partners to be published on its hosting systems:

1. Pornographic, sexually suggestive, or violent material.
2. “Hate” websites or content that might be construed as being racist or sexist in any form, especially with regard to sex, race, or age.
3. Anything that is unlawful (including copyrighted content that has been stolen).
4. Content that breaches a person’s privacy or is defamatory.
5. Content that is related to terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking, or theft.
6. Illegal gambling sites.
7. Software piracy websites.

In the event that DarkMatter and/or it's partners decides, in its sole judgment, that any customer material violates any law, including the Film and Publications Act of 1966 or this policy:

1. Requesting the user to remove such content right away; and/or
2. Compel the client to edit such content; and/or
3. Access to any services may be restricted or terminated without prior notice; or
4. Delete the offensive content immediately; or
5. Notify the appropriate authorities of the existence of the content (if required by law or otherwise), create any backup copies, archives, or other copies of the content as needed, comply with any requests from the authorities for customer data, and take any additional actions that may be necessary.

3. Abuse Of Account Capabilities

1. It is prohibited to run any service that grants third parties access to a feature of an account for any purpose other than regular use of the account’s website. Operating any service that encourages or supports abusive or anonymous behavior by third parties is prohibited. It is not permitted to operate any service that negatively effects other users, the business, DarkMatter, or it's partners, lowers service quality, or affects the stability or dependability of any server or network component of DarkMatter and/or it's partners. All account features must only be used to create and put into use the Web site(s) linked to that account.
2. It is not permitted to sell Multiple Domains on DarkMatter’s Web Hosting packages to a third party. The sole purpose of several Domains is the Profile Owner’s personal webpages.

4. Shared Systems And Resource Usage

Clients hosting in our shared environment are not permitted to utilise any shared system offered by DarkMatter in a manner that obstructs its normal operation or uses an excessive amount of its resources. For instance, excessive server hits, bandwidth, disk, or database queries may jeopardise the security of other users of the shared hosting environment. If it is determined that a user’s excessive resource consumption is having a negative effect on other users of our shared hosting environment, DarkMatter has the authority to suspend that user’s account. The examples below typically don’t apply to DarkMatter Managed Servers.

1. The following cannot be started by users via a cron job, CGI script, interactive command, or any other method on DarkMatter’s shared servers:
   1. Start any procedure requiring more than 50 MB of RAM.
   2. Start any program that takes more than 30 CPU seconds to complete.
   3. Run more than ten processes concurrently.
   4. Within an hour, send emails to more than 500 recipients (email addresses). One of the following 500 honorees represents the group: One email sent to 500 recipients, 500 separate emails, or a combination of the two.
   5. Any file larger than 20MB may be sent or received via mail.
2. On the shared systems owned by DarkMatter, interactive Web applications such as “chat” are not permitted. The Manager Servers are a better venue for these apps.
3. Customers of the Web Hosting Basic package and higher get access to MySQL databases:
   1. There is a quota allotted for each eligible individual package, which is listed in the product matrix.
   2. A maximum of 5GB of storage space is allotted to each individual database.
   3. Databases may not be used to store websites in order to get around package disk limitations.
   4. Only DarkMatter hosted packages may be used in conjunction with databases. Databases from outside of our local network are only accessible for the purposes of site and database development.
   5. Per database user, a maximum of 10 MySQL connections can be active simultaneously.
   6. Binary files, such as image and program files, but not just, cannot be stored in databases. Instead of actually saving the image on the user’s website, the database must make a reference to it using a link; in other words, these files must be kept in the user account and accessed in the database through a link.
   7. If databases and database usage have a negative effect on a database server and/or other user databases on that server, DarkMatter retains the right to demand modifications. If DarkMatter and/or it's partners determines that a database is impairing the performance of a database server, it may relocate the database to a different server or, in severe circumstances, it reserves the right to shut the database.
4. On DarkMatter servers, “cron jobs” (processes that are launched automatically at certain intervals in accordance with a “crontab” file configured by each user) are permitted with the following prerequisites and limitations:
   1. Only customers of the Web Hosting Basic package and higher are permitted to utilize.
   2. The task cannot run more frequently than every two hours.
   3. A cron task should be given a lower CPU priority if it is expected to use an excessive amount of CPU resources.
5. Systems for automatic monitoring impose resource restrictions. If it does not obstruct DarkMatter’s capacity to manage the server on the customer’s behalf, this does not apply to managed servers

5. Server-side Operations

1. Except for cron tasks as per point 4 above, it is not feasible to install or run any stand-alone, unattended server-side processes (daemons) on DarkMatter servers. Account cancellation will occur immediately and without prior notice for violations of this policy. As long as it does not obstruct DarkMatter’s ability to operate the server on the client’s behalf, this does not apply to the Managed Servers offered by DarkMatter.
2. This rule is in place for a number of reasons:
   1. To safeguard each server’s available CPU and memory resources.
   2. By preventing unauthorized third-party programs from accepting connections from the outside world, to safeguard and improve system security.
3. The stability and ongoing functioning of the servers are seriously put at risk by managed servers’ disks operating at constant high demand. Such occurrences are reported to us via our internal automated monitoring system. Once we receive these signals, we’ll let you know and advise you on the best course of action to take. After three notifications have been sent and if there is no proof that the client has taken any action to lessen server load, DarkMatter will halt escalations to the customer and deactivate alerts on the involved server. This means that after receiving three notifications, the server’s lack of system resources will no longer be reported to you. More crucially, if system resources are not released, it’s possible that your website and/or email will stop functioning and become unresponsive.

6. Online Misuse

You are not permitted to use our network for any unlawful, abusive, or careless activities, such as:

1. Unauthorised use of or access to data, services, systems, or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan, or test a system’s or network’s vulnerability or to circumvent security or authentication procedures without the owner of the system or network’s express consent;
2. Monitoring any network or system’s data or traffic without the network’s or system’s owner’s consent;
3. Interference with a user’s, host’s, or network’s ability to receive service, including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, intentional overloading of a system, and broadcast attacks;
4. Using a computer or Internet account without the owner’s permission;
5. Obtaining information through deception, such as, but not limited to, port scanning, security hole scanning, password robbery, and Internet scamming (tricking others into disclosing their passwords);
6. Using DarkMatter’s service to disseminate software that secretly collects or secretly sends user information;
7. Any action or behavior that could lead to retaliation against our network;
8. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (see ECT Act), which subjects you to a fine or jail; any action or behaviour that is likely to violate any applicable laws, codes, or regulations;
9. Intentionally or unintentionally introducing a virus or other contaminated program into DarkMatter’s service, or failing to utilize a current virus-scanning application on all content downloaded from the Web;
10. It is prohibited to forge emails or other messages. Software piracy trafficking is prohibited. The use of instruments that scan ports or others is prohibited.
11. It is expressly prohibited to use DarkMatter services to publish or otherwise spread information regarding the accessibility of unlawfully distributed software or other content, including the publication of a list of links to such content, regardless of disclaimers. We do not support any unlawful speech or conduct.

You must abide by the acceptable usage guidelines of any network or system you connect to using our service. All of the user’s accounts will be temporarily disabled if improper conduct is found, pending the outcome of the inquiry. User notification in advance is not guaranteed. In the worst-case scenarios, police enforcement will be informed of the conduct.

7. Security

Customers of DarkMatter are required to take reasonable security measures. Due to carelessness, susceptible computers, website software, or the use of weak passwords, websites might be hacked as well as mailboxes could be compromised, which could harm other DarkMatter customers through blacklisting, phishing, or spamming.

1. Regardless of the installation method, it is the customer’s obligation to make that scripts/programs installed under their account are secure (using the newest version) and directory permissions are configured properly. All actions carried out under a user’s account are ultimately their responsibility. This includes the theft of login information, like a user name and password. Customers are required to choose a strong password. DarkMatter will alert the user and provide them time to update or reset a password if it is determined that the password is weak. The user’s account may be suspended or cancelled if they neglect to reset their password, which unintentionally results in the website being compromised.
2. Passwords should have at least 11 different case-sensitive alpha, numeric, and mixed characters. Customers should periodically update their passwords and avoid using terms that are used frequently as passwords. DarkMatter retains the right to reset a password in the event of abuse.

8. Disk Usage

1. File-heavy accounts may negatively impact server performance. DarkMatter is limited by the following: 50 000 files per directory, or 200 000 files (e.g., an email, webpage, image file, directory, etc.). Files and/or directories belonging to accounts that go over the aforementioned cap will not be included in our backup system.
2. It is forbidden to use our servers for personal storage. Any content that is stored must directly connect to the concerned website or websites.
3. Catchall mailboxes and bounce message mailboxes are examples of mailboxes that accumulate a lot of messages without being accessed. Customers that enable their catchall address but never check their primary account mailbox may be the main source of high disk consumption. Tens of thousands of mails accumulate over time and exceed our file limit on the account.
4. Email that is more than five years old might not be kept on the server.
5. Emails that are 5 MB or greater in size cannot be kept on the system for more than a month.
6. A disk usage cap is in force for DarkMatter’s Web Hosting plans. Where appropriate, customers receive monthly emails from DarkMatter alerting them to domains that have used up more space than allotted. This gives them the chance to reduce disk space consumption or upgrade to a better subscription to avoid being charged extra for excessive usage. Customers can access the DarkMatter Control Panel and frequently check their disk consumption by selecting “Disk Usage” under Statistics & Reports. This will provide customers with a reading of the package’s overall size as well as a summary of the sizes of each directory.
7. An automated system tracks, notifies, and charges for over-usage in order for DarkMatter to work more effectively and for our clients to have the freedom and control to actively manage their disk space.
8. The stability and continued functioning of the servers are seriously jeopardized when managed server disks are operating at close to full capacity. Such occurrences are reported to us via our internal automated monitoring system. Once we receive these signals, we’ll let you know and advise you on the best course of action to take. After three notifications have been received and if there is no proof that the client has taken any action to clear enough disk space, DarkMatter will discontinue sending escalations to the customer and deactivate alerts on the affected server. This means that after receiving three messages, you will stop receiving notifications when the server’s disk space is full. More significantly, once your disk is full, your website and/or email will stop working.

9. Traffic Usage

There is no predetermined traffic quota for our web hosting plans and self-managed server solutions. More information regarding our unlimited traffic policy, which applies only to our Web Hosting plans, is available here. This policy, which has been created to protect DarkMatter’s server and network performance for the benefit of all of our customers, is expected to be followed by all clients.

It is not allowed to use our Web Hosting packages and Volume Plan primarily for online file storage, electronic file archiving, excessive video streaming, or hosting music.

Without prior approval, certain services may not be hosted on our Server and Colocation offering. Some examples, although not all, are as follows:

1. Services for public mirroring that are made accessible to the general public
2. Any website or service whose main goal is to steer or reroute traffic between networks
3. Selling consumers’ internet access by way of bandwidth and/or network resources

Contact [email protected] if you’d like to discuss your request in more detail.

10. Traffic Quotas Cannot Be Combined Between Several Servers

Traffic usage for each IP address will be provided by DarkMatter, and any disproportionate usage will be noted with the customer. Applying an aggregated traffic use model across many servers is therefore not possible.

It is not recommended to transport internet traffic coming from a colocation network through a self-managed server or network. Hosting a video processing system is an example of this, as the processing involved calls for a sizable number of servers, including database, backup, and redundancy servers. On our network, it is not feasible to mix the quotas of different servers.

Other instances that could attract plenty of visitors include:

1. Websites with a lot of traffic, like news24.com
2. Large-scale SaaS deployments
3. Servers that are utilized as caching proxies or for large downloads
4. Services that send bulk mail, such a free Webmail service
5. Public hosting
6. Platforms for cloud hosting

The majority of our clients consistently use aggregated data in a manner that is well within permitted limits, according to our research. Any clients who exhibit a pattern of high usage will be contacted to seek a workable solution. You are welcome to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

11. Self-managed Servers And Traffic

1. The traffic quota for our Self-Managed Server choices is undefined. All Self-Managed Server users are required to abide by our Acceptable Use Policy in accordance with sections 1.3 and 2 of this policy. Any server that uses traffic in violation of this policy risk having its bandwidth restricted during periods of high demand.
2. DarkMatter will limit the connection speed if we notice a pattern of excessive usage.
3. DarkMatter tracks each customer’s overall upload and download volume to spot individuals who use their services excessively. Our Acceptable Use Policy merely limits connection speed; it does not restrict the amount of time each customer can spend online or the total amount of data they can download or upload.
4. As a result of enforcing its Acceptable Use Policy, DarkMatter will not be liable to you or any other third party for any loss or damages resulting from or connected to the speed restriction of access.