visualkinetics opened this issue on Nov 14, 2001 ยท 17 posts
scifiguy posted Thu, 15 November 2001 at 2:24 AM
Attached Link: http://www.hostonce.com/terms_conditions.htm
The small print you need to read (see link). First, note they specifically prohibit hosting files for others, so your idea is a bad one pokeydots :( Second, the real kick is the (intentionally) vague restrictions on bandwidth: "UNLIMITED USE POLICY High bandwidth usage: HostOnce.com offers an unlimited use policy by maintaining very large ratios of bandwidth per customer. In rare cases, HostOnce.com may find a customer to be using server resources to such an extent that he or she may jeopardize server performance and resources for other customers. In such instances, HostOnce.com reserves the right to impose the High Resource User Policy for the consideration of all customers. HIGH RESOURCE USER POLICY Resources are defined as bandwidth and/or processor utilization. HostOnce.com may implement the following policy to its sole discretion: When a website is found to be monopolizing the resources available HostOnce.com reserves the right to suspend that site immediately. This policy is only implemented in extreme circumstances and is intended to prevent the misuse of our servers. Customers may be offered an option whereby HostOnce.com continues hosting the website for an additional fee." Hmmmm..."very large" eh? By who's standards? Compared to what? Most likely, they will be gauging your site based on "typical" web sites that have low traffic, are mostly text, and don't really use that much bandwidth. A site that features downloads and images for a community like this one is not going to have "typical" traffic. So, they may suddenly throttle your site and demand more money at some unspecified, in thier "sole discretion" point. Read down the page and you will see that you will get no refunds of prepaid months if you violate these same unspecified and at their whim terms. (NOTE: CPU usage usually does have a more vague limit, but unless you are executing a lot of perl scripts, or poorly designed scripts, this should not be a problem...its the transfer that a graphics site needs to worry about). Their privacy policy leaves a lot to be desired: "HostOnce.com may share customer information with selected partners/third parties, for example, to provide you with information about products which might be of interest to you or to enable you to take advantage of special partner programs. HostOnce.com may also use customer information to provide customers with system information or information about new or upgraded products." Translation: we sell our member lists to spammers. I would not recommend this host for a graphics and download focused web site, or for anyone who prefers their host keep their personal information private. I highly suggest anyone looking for a host seek out and read all terms of use and privacy policies before signing up for a host and giving them money. Dirt cheap hosts should be viewed with extra suspicion, but I've seen plenty of other hosts with terms that are just as bad. Any good host will (among other things) 1. Tell you what the usage limits actually are, provide you with tracking (logs) so you can monitor your usage, and only charge you if you exceed the stated limit, and 2. keep your personal information private and not peddle it out to every ad company they can. A final note: Domain names are cheap cheap cheap. Go to http://www.discountdomainregistry.com/ and get your domain for $15 a year and retain total control over it. You've probably spent a lot more than that for one Poser model. Isn't your domain name worth it? A word of warning: some "free" domain name companies register themselves as administrator. That means they own it, not you. You leave their service, you don't get to take the domain with you. Of course, they may let you buy it from them...