Preface
It is unfortunate that we live in a day and age where common sense does not prevail. Our job is to provide you friendly service, a web hosting account, and technical assistance at an extremely reasonable cost.
Many individuals and companies operate by exploiting low cost accounts for their own personal gains, which is unfortunate as it only hurts everyone in the process.To protect all of our valued customers, (and to make the lawyers happy) we have an extensive Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Agreement. Please understand that by far most customers never need to be concerned with breaching their contracts, but the “fine print” is all here to protect both you and us from those who are out to exploit our services for their own selfish gain.
Please read and understand our complete Terms of Service and Acceptable Use agreement below, as use of our services constitutes acceptance of and agreement to abide by this policy.
Terms of Service and Acceptable Use
This Services Agreement (the “Agreement”) contains the complete terms and conditions applicable to your subscription to the Web hosting, Dedicated Servers, e-commerce, Domain Registrations, or other related services (the “Service” or “Services”) provided by FPO Hosting, as specified in this Agreement.
As used in this Agreement, “FPO Hosting” or “FPOHosting.com” means Smith Family Enterprises, the owner and operator of FPOHosting.com, and “Client”,“Customer”, “Subscriber”, “User”, “you”, and “your” means you.
By ordering and using our Services, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to the entire terms and conditions contained herein and all policies posted on the FPO Hosting website.
- Policies Incorporated Herein
You agree to adhere to, and be bound by, all applicable service policies of FPO Hosting, including but not limited to our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy, Email Policy, and DMCA Policy. - Privacy
Protecting your privacy is very important to FPO Hosting, so we work hard to safeguard your personally identifiable information. Use of our Services constitutes acceptance of and agreement to this policy. You may view our Privacy Policy here. - Term
By submitting an order, Customer hereby agrees to be bound by the service term selected on the online or printed order form. This Agreement begins on the date you register for the Services and shall continue in effect on a month-to-month basis from the first of each month to the end of each month unless otherwise specified by separate agreement (the “Term”). Termination must be in accordance with the account cancellation provisions of this Agreement. - Account Setup / Email on file
We will setup your account after we have received payment and we and/or our payment partner(s) have screened the order(s) for indications of fraud. It is your responsibility to provide us with a valid, operating email address. If there is ever an abuse issue or we need to contact you, the primary email address on file will be used for this purpose. It is your responsibility to ensure the email address on file is current or up to date at all times. Providing false contact information may result in the suspension or termination of your account. - Content
All Services provided by FPO Hosting may only be used for lawful purposes. The laws of the State of Virginia and the United States of America apply.
The Customer agrees to indemnify and hold harmless FPO Hosting from any claims resulting from the use of our Services.
Use of our Services to infringe upon any copyright or trademark is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to unauthorized copying of music, books, photographs,or any other copyrighted work. The offer of sale of any counterfeit merchandise of a trademark holder will result in the immediate termination of your account. If you believe that your copyright or trademark is being infringed upon, please contact us with the information required. A list of required information may be found here. If the request is of a licensing issue, we may require further documentation.
Examples of unacceptable material on all accounts include, but are not limited to:
IRC Bots, Proxy Scripts / Anonymizers, Pirated Software / Warez, image, filedump, mirror, or banner-ad services (similar to rapidshare, photobucket, or commercial banner ad rotation), topsites, commercial audio streaming, Escrow, High-Yield Interest Programs (HYIP) or related sites, Investment sites (FOREX, egold exchange),sale of any controlled substance, Auto Surf sites, Bank Debentures, Bank Debenture Trading Programs, Prime Banks Programs, lottery sites, muds / rpg’s, hate sites,hacker focused sites/archives/programs, or sites promoting illegal activities, IP Scanners, Brute Force Programs, Mail Bombers and Spam Scripts. Forums and or websites that distribute or link to warez content are prohibited.
You agree that we reserve the right to refuse hosting or creative (web design) services to anyone that would request us to design, host, or store material on our services that, in our judgment, is obscene, threatening, prohibited, or in direct conflict with our deeply held religious values. Any materials such as these may be removed from our servers without notice.
Failure to respond to email from our abuse or support department within 24 hours may result in the suspension or termination and deletion of your account. All abuse issues must be dealt with via trouble ticket/email and will have a response within 48 hours.
If in doubt regarding the acceptability of your site or usage of our Services, please contact us at our Contact Page and we will be happy to assist you.
Potential harm to minors is strictly forbidden, including but not limited to pornography, adult content, child pornography or content perceived to be child pornography. Any site found to host child pornography or linking to child pornography will be suspended immediately without notice. Violations will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
It is your responsibility to ensure that scripts/programs installed under your account are secure and permissions of directories are set properly, regardless of installation method. When at all possible, set permissions on most directories to 755 or as restrictive as possible. Users are ultimately responsible for all actions taken under their account. This includes the compromise of credentials such as username and passwords. It is required that you use a secure password. If a weak password is used, you may be contacted and your account may be suspended until you agree to use a more secure password. Audits may be done to prevent weak passwords from being used. If an audit is performed, and your password is found to be weak, we will notify you and allow time for you to change/update your password.
Adult Content Prohibited
Because the Internet is a global communication tool, and we have clients from nearly every country in the world it is difficult to dictate what is considered “adult material.” This being said, there are still several reasons why FPO Hosting has been forced to create its no adult sites policy.
What does FPO Hosting consider “Adult Material”?
Any site whose revenue is gained in part or whole from its adult content.
Photos or videos showing frontal nudity on either men or women.
Hyperlinks to adult sites, including but not limited to sites who violate these policies.
Sites that have discussion boards and share information that is ‘adult’ in nature.
Sites that sell or promote ‘adult’ material, including but not limited to adult toys.
FPO Hosting reserves the right to decide what it considers “adult content”, “adult material”, “sexually explicit”, or “sexually related”. Let us know if you are unsure of the approval of your site before placing an order. Please contact us for review of your content and/or site.
Why does FPO Hosting have this policy?
Core Values
Our core values dictate that no adult sites will be allowed. We as a family-owned and operated business are vehemently opposed to adult or pornographic sites of any nature.
Bandwidth and Resources
A shared server is a shared environment where many servers reside on each particular machine. This being said, consider that an average “adult site” gets more hits than thousands of standard web sites. With these types of resources being utilized, our services would be severely slowed if we allowed these high traffic sites to also reside on our servers. In addition, we would be forced to raise our prices to pay for the additional bandwidth. We strive to keep our servers fast and inexpensive, and our bandwidth clear; therefore, adult sites are not an option.
Banned IPs
Adult sites tend to get blocked. Since many of our shared accounts also share IP addresses and/or the range of IPs is blocked, all other users on that server or network range are impacted.
Association
Many people do not want to be associated with adult content, based on personal opinions and beliefs. IPs are assigned to a server in ranges and IP address are in many cases shared IPs. Consequently, we want our shared servers to be ‘adult content’ free.
Defamatory or Abusive Language Prohibited
Using FPO Hosting’s network as a means to transmit or post defamatory, harassing, abusive, or threatening language, or any content that is discriminatory based on gender assigned at birth, race, age and/or promotes hate or violence is prohibited. - Zero Tolerance Spam Policy
We take a zero tolerance stance against sending of unsolicited e-mail, bulk emailing, and spam. “Safe lists” and “double opt-in” will be treated as spam. Any user who sends out spam may have their account suspended or terminated without notice. Included in these Terms of Service by reference is the Mail and mail-list policy.
Sites advertised via SPAM or bulk email may not be hosted on our servers. This provision includes, but is not limited to SPAM sent via fax, email, instant messaging,bots, banner ads, forums, usenet or newsgroups. No organization or entity listed in the ROKSO may be hosted on our servers. Any account which results in our IP space being blacklisted or throttled or capped, may be immediately suspended and/or terminated and deleted.
FPO Hosting reserves the right to require changes or disable as necessary any web site, account, database, or other component that does not comply with its established policies, or to make any such modifications in an emergency at its sole discretion to protect the availability of hosting servers to all customers.
FPO Hosting reserves the right to charge the holder of the account used to send any unsolicited e-mail a clean up fee. This cost of the clean up fee is entirely at the discretion of FPO Hosting. - Billing and Payment
You agree to supply appropriate payment for the Services received from FPO Hosting, in advance of the time period during which such Services are provided. You agree that until and unless you notify FPO Hosting of your desire to cancel any or all Services received, those Services will be billed on a recurring basis.
During the term of this Agreement, Client will pay FPO Hosting the fees and charges for the Services ordered. All amounts shall be paid in U.S. dollars and FPOHosting shall either:
Debit client’s credit card, where Client authorizes charges to be made in advance each month to the Client’s credit card, or Debit Client’s bank account, where such information is provided by and charges are authorized by the Client, and/or Deliver by e-mail an invoice to the Client in accordance with the applicable Service Fees for the current month. Invoices are due upon receipt.
Delinquency
FPO Hosting shall be entitled to immediately terminate this Agreement for Client’s failure to make timely payments. For further information, see Late Payments.
Service Fees
During the term of the Agreement, Customer shall pay the fees for the Services each month at the then current rates on the hosting plan comparison page or relevant Service pricing page, including initial installation fees and monthly recurring fees. Pricing is subject to change at anytime without advance notice. If Shared server Customers use bandwidth or disk space beyond what is set forth on the order form or plan comparison or relevant Service page, Customer agrees to pay additional charges at the then current rates.
Late Payments
Payments not received within twenty-five (25) days of the invoice date, will be assessed a late fee of five percent (5%) per month or the highest rate allowed by applicable law, whichever is lower. The minimum late fee is $5.00. Late fees will continue to accrue as long as there is an outstanding balance. Accounts with balances 45 days past due are delinquent and eligible for discontinuation without further notice. Delinquent accounts require payment by credit card to return to good standing. Accounts that are not paid within 10 days of discontinuation are subject to immediate termination.
Returned Item Fee
Accounts with returned checks and/or e-checks will be assessed a $35.00 returned item fee. New payment must be made by credit card immediately or account will be in delinquent status. Illegitimate credit card charge backs will be assessed a $50.00 returned item fee.
Domain Name Registration Fee
If you register a domain name(s) through FPO Hosting, you acknowledge and agree to pay a registration fee(s) to register the domain name(s) with the applicable registrar. FPO Hosting does not offer refunds for domain name registrations for any reason, including misspelling of the domain name. Be sure to double-check the spelling of domain names on all correspondence when requesting domain name registration.
Taxes
Customer will be responsible for payment in full of any taxes and similar fees imposed on the transaction and/or the delivery of Services. FPO Hosting shall have the right at any time, to invoice to customer any new or increased taxes, fees, assessments, or other charges imposed or required by any governmental agency. Client will indemnify and hold harmless FPO Hosting from any and all taxes associated with or arising from Client’s use of the Services. These include any penalties and interest as well as any costs associated with the collection or withholding thereof. - Cancellation of Services and Refunds
FPO Hosting reserves the right to cancel the account at any time with or without notice.
Cancellations by customer must be submitted in writing. Once we receive your cancellation and have confirmed all necessary information with you via e-mail, we will inform you that your account has been canceled. At this time, your account with us has been canceled. If you do not hear back from us or receive an e-mail confirming this cancellation, please contact us immediately.
Notice
All Cancellation requests must be received Five (5) days prior to the cancellation effective date (end of current cycle date). Cancellation requests must be made via written letter mailed to:
Attn: Account Cancellations
Smith Family Enterprises
2795 Lyndhurst Road
Waynesboro, VA 22980-9421
Date
If a Client terminates their account, FPO Hosting will disable the server/account on the day the Client specifies. It is the responsibility of the Client to remove any data off the server prior to the date provided in their cancellation notice. FPO Hosting will not maintain an archival copy of the Clients data files. No refunds will be given if Client chooses a date before the end of the current billing cycle (end of the month).
Outstanding Fees
If Client terminates this Agreement, you shall be responsible for any outstanding fees owed and agrees to pay any and all fees incurred by Client. For Services provided on a monthly basis, Client will be responsible for Service Fees incurred each month, regardless of when Client provides notice of termination.Discount/Prepaid Accounts: If Client has agreed to a specific term in exchange for a discount of fees and/or has prepaid FPO Hosting for such Services, no refunds will be issued, even if cancelled before the prepaid term ends.
Refund policy
Hosting customers agree to a no refund policy following the 30-day unconditional guarantee. All shared hosting accounts come with an unconditional, no questions asked, trial period. Set up fees and monthly Service charges are non-refundable for any reason after the 30 day trial period. There are no refunds for Service charges for dedicated servers, or for administrative fees, installation fees, setup fees for custom software, or domain name purchases.
Only first-time accounts are eligible for a refund. For example, if you’ve had an account with us before, cancelled and signed up again, you will not be eligible for a refund. You will not be eligible for a refund on additional accounts if you have opened any additional accounts with us.
Violations of any portion of the Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policies result in the automatic forfeiture of any refunds. - Backups and Data Loss
Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. FPO Hosting is not responsible for files and/or data residing on your account, including but not limited to website files,email, account configuration, databases, scripts media and any other file or configuration setting in the account. Computer hardware failures do occasionally occur,resulting in data loss requiring the use of a backup to recover that data. You agree to take full responsibility for regularly backing up your files and data stored on FPO Hosting servers, and to maintain secure access to your copies of backup of files in the event you would need them. - Resource Usage
Users of our service may not:
a) Use 10% or more of total system resources for longer then 90 seconds. There are numerous activities that could cause such problems; these include: CGI scripts,FTP, PHP, HTTP, etc.
b) Run stand-alone, unattended server-side processes at any point in time on the server. This includes any and all daemons, such as IRCD.
c) Run any type of web spider or indexer (including Google Cash / AdSpy) on shared servers.
d) Run any software that interfaces with an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network.
e) Run any bit torrent application, tracker, or client. Please note that you may link to torrents off server, but may not host or store them.
f) Participate in any file-sharing/peer-to-peer activities
g) Run any gaming servers such as counter-strike, half-life, battlefield1942, etc
h) Run cron entries with intervals of less than 15 minutes
When using PHP include functions for including a local file, include the local file rather than the URL. Instead of include(“http://yourdomain.com/include.php”) use include(“include.php”)
INODES:
The use of more than 10,000 inodes on any shared account may potentially result in suspension. Accounts found to be exceeding the 10,000 inode limit will automatically be removed from our backup system to avoid over usage. Every file on your account uses up 1 inode.
Simply exceeding the limit does not constitute grounds for suspension however accounts that constantly create and delete large numbers of files on a regular basis or causing file system damage may cause your account to be flagged for review.
Bandwidth Usage:
You are allocated a monthly bandwidth allowance. This allowance varies depending on the hosting package you purchase. Should your account pass the allocated amount we reserve the right to suspend the account until the start of the next allocation, suspend the account until more bandwidth is purchased at an additional fee, suspend the account until you upgrade to a higher level of package, terminate the account and/or charge you an additional fee for the overages. Unused transfer in one month cannot be carried over to the next month.
Why does FPO Hosting have resource and bandwidth usage policies?
Server performance and fairness to all customers are top priorities. A Shared Server includes many customer accounts. In all fairness, FPO Hosting cannot allow one or two clients to use all of the resources on a Shared Server, causing all other clients to suffer as a result. Excessive usage by one or more clients causes extreme slowness in all areas, often resulting in the failure of Services on the server or failure of the entire server, forcing a system reboot. - Money back Guarantee
Each of FPO Hosting’s shared server accounts carry a 30 day unconditional money back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with our Services within the first 30 days of your Service, you will be given a full refund of the monthly hosting Service charge amount, in accordance with our Refund Policy above. - Client Responsibilities and Support
Clients are responsible for all content stored or transmitted under their account and the actions of constituents, including email transmission and all activity from client’s account. All users of the hosting account or server, whether the account administrator or client’s end users (email users or web-based users), must adhere to these Terms of Service and all other policies referenced here.
General Support
FPO Hosting provides Clients with Technical Support 24/7/365 via online documentation and tutorials. To obtain additional support, you agree to use our central support system at
https://www.fpohosting.com/myaccount and follow instructions or recommendations provided by support staff. The data centers where our servers are located are monitored by engineers 24x7x365 with guaranteed uptime SLAs (Service Level Agreements) in place.
Application Support
FPO Hosting offers technological expertise pertaining to our hosting Services, but not web development, application development unless the website was developed by FPO Hosting and is currently being maintained by FPO Hosting for additional fees. As such, FPO Hosting does not guarantee assistance with issues including, but not limited to:
Custom configuration and detailed usability questions about included third party features including control panel, add-on scripts or applications, databases, or email applications;
Questions related to a third party product or script that the client introduces to the server, whether included in ‘optional’ scripts or installed manually.
These questions must be directed to the third party vendor or creator of the script.
Email Client Configuration
FPO Hosting provides configuration support on our help pages. Additional telephone support is available on a per-case basis, at an hourly consulting rate.Consulting starts at $80 per hour.
Virtual Security
Virtual Security FPO Hosting offers additional email services designed to filter and prevent spam and virus infections. However, these services do not guarantee protection against all viruses. The proliferation of viruses on the Internet cannot be directly controlled. Therefore, FPO Hosting cannot be held responsible for virus infections that may occur. Clients are responsible for securing their own computers and networks against viruses, trojans, and internet nuisances and attacks. - Shared / Semi-dedicated Servers
Our Shared and Semi-dedicated Services may not be resold. Shared or Semi-dedicated servers are not backed up. You must maintain your own backups of data stored on the server. - Dedicated Servers
Our Dedicated Server Services may not be resold. FPO Hosting reserves the right to reset the password on a dedicated server to audit servers as needed and to perform administrative actions at the request of our hosting partner and data center. Dedicated servers are NOT backed up by us and it is the responsibility of the client to maintain your own backups. - Service Fees and Price Changes
During the term of the Agreement, Customer shall pay the fees for the Services set forth on the online form, including initial installation fees and monthly recurring fees. If Shared server Customers use bandwidth or disk space beyond what is set forth on the order form, Customer agrees to pay additional charges at the then current rates.
Our practice historically has been to not to increase the cost of hosting plans for existing customers. We do reserve the right to change prices listed on FPOHosting.com, and the right to increase the quantity of computing, disk space and bandwidth resources given to plans for new clients at any time. - Shared Server Environment
FPO Hosting is a Web Hosting Service Reseller that utilizes multiple vendors, partners and upstream technologies. We lease server space from multiple vendors and all policies of our upstream vendors apply to your agreement with us. We, along with our customers, are bound to the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use and other Service policies of those vendors.
By using FPO Hosting services, you agree to be bound by all policies of our upstream vendors, including, but not limited to, the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use policies noted below.
In the event that a part of the Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy from any of our upstream vendors is more is more restrictive, the vendor’s Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy shall prevail for that part.
KnownHost Terms of Service: https://www.knownhost.com/terms-of-service
KnownHost Acceptable Use Policy: https://www.knownhost.com/acceptable-use-policy - Indemnification
Customer agrees that it shall defend, indemnify, save and hold FPO Hosting harmless from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable attorney’s fees asserted against FPO Hosting, its agents, its customers, officers and employees, that may arise or result from any service provided or performed or agreed to be performed or any product sold by customer, its agents, employees or assigns. Customer agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless FPO Hosting against liabilities arising out of; (1) any injury to person or property caused by any products sold or otherwise distributed in connection with FPOHosting; (2) any material supplied by customer infringing or allegedly infringing on the proprietary rights of a third party; (3) copyright infringement; (4) any defective products sold to customers from FPO Hosting’s server; and (5) any claims, damage, fees, or expenses incurred by upstream vendors or their customers due to your use of the Service. Customer shall pay to FPO Hosting all expenses incurred by FPO Hosting in exercising any of its rights under this Agreement or applicable law, including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys’ fees and the fees of any collection agency retained by FPO Hosting.
In any legal proceeding between the parties under this Agreement, FPO Hosting alone shall be entitled to recover its costs, expenses and reasonable attorney’s fees. - Disclaimer
FPO Hosting shall not be responsible for any damages your business may suffer. FPO Hosting makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied for services we provide. FPO Hosting disclaims any warranty or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, no deliveries,wrong delivery, and any and all service interruptions caused by FPO Hosting, its service providers, suppliers and its employees.
THE SERVICES AND THE FPO Hosting SITE ARE PROVIDED TO CLIENT ON AN “AS IS” BASIS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ALL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DISPLAYED OR OFFERED ON THE FPO Hosting SITE, ALL TEXT, GRAPHICS, LINKS AND APPLICATIONS. FPO Hosting DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO EACH OF THE FORGOING, WITHOUT LIMITATION: ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY,FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT OR ARISING UNDER FROM A COURSE OF DEALING. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, FPO Hosting SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY THAT (1) THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE; (2) DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; (3) THERE ARE NO VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, AND (4) THE SECURITY METHODS EMPLOYED WILL BE SUFFICIENT. - Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT SHALL FPO Hosting BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS, USE OF THE FPO Hosting SITE OR ANY FPO Hosting PRODUCTS OR SERVICES, OR FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR IN CONNECTION WITH ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES PROVIDED HEREUNDER. IN NO EVENT SHALL FPO Hosting CUMULATIVE LIABILITY EXCEED AN AMOUNT GREATER THAN FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($500 US).
THE DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY ARE MATERIAL TO THIS AGREEMENT. - Arbitration
By using any FPO Hosting services, you agree to submit to binding arbitration. If any disputes or claims arise against FPO Hosting or its subsidiaries, such disputes will be handled by an arbitrator of FPO Hosting’s choice. An arbitrator from the American Arbitration Association or the National Arbitration Forum will be selected in the state of Virginia. Arbitrators shall be attorneys or retired judges and shall be selected pursuant to the applicable rules. All decisions rendered by the arbitrator will be binding and final. The arbitrator’s award is final and binding on all parties. The Federal Arbitration Act, and not any state arbitration law, governs all arbitration under this Arbitration Clause. You are also responsible for any and all costs related to such arbitration. - Severability
If any of the provisions, or portions thereof, of this Agreement are found to be invalid under any applicable statute or rule of law, then, that provision notwithstanding, this Agreement shall remain in full force and effect and such provisions or portions thereof shall be deemed omitted. - Integration
This Agreement, including the Exhibits, attachments, and/or any addenda, represents the entire agreement of the parties with respect of the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior and/or contemporaneous agreements or understandings, written or oral between the parties. No obligations beyond those set forth in this Agreement shall be assumed. - Disclosure to law enforcement
FPO Hosting may disclose any subscriber information to law enforcement agencies without further consent or notification to the subscriber upon lawful request from such agencies. We will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies. - Changes to the Terms of Service
FPO Hosting, including its upstream vendors, reserve the right to revise its policies at any time without notice. The current Terms of Service will be posted on this web site. It is your responsibility to review the terms of service from time to time, at least annually. Your use of any FPO Hosting Service constitutes your agreement to these Terms of Service.
Last Updated July 22, 2023
