Resource Use Policy

What is a resource use policy?

In a shared hosting environment, server resources are shared among the clients using services on that server. And while the machines for shared services have significant resources and processing power, a single user cannot use them in an uncontrolled and inappropriate manner. Restrictions are applied to user accounts to protect the accounts of PinedCloud customers using the shared services in a standard/normal manner for their own websites and their own email. While these are defined limits, PinedCloud determines whether an account is abusing the hosting service. These regulations apply to shared hosting and reseller hosting.

Actions restricting hosting account activity in certain situations are dictated solely by concern for the protection of our Customers, more than 99.5% of whom use the services in such a manner that the limitations described herein do not apply, and whose use of hosting accounts does not exceed any of the described limits.

Enforcement

You should be aware that many of the restrictions presented here are so-called soft restrictions, so exceeding them does not have to result in consequences right away. However, if your activity on the hosting account starts to affect the overall performance of the server it is hosted on, such limitations must be defined. Without this, it is extremely difficult to explain to the client that his account causes excessive use of server resources. Quantification is therefore necessary.

If a Customer’s account exceeds the specified limits, we will attempt to work with the Customer to give the Customer 24 or 48 hours, 5 or 10 days (depending on the type of exceedance and its impact on the server) to take action to correct the problem. If the Customer does not take action within this time period to reduce the use of resources, we will be forced to terminate the agreement within another 24 or 48 hours, 5 or 10 days (depending on the type of exceedance and its impact on the server). Thus, we reserve the right according to the Terms of Hosting Services to immediately suspend the service if it causes more serious problems.

Regulations

E-mail / spam

The use of PinedCloud’s servers and network to send unsolicited bulk commercial email (spam-like activity) is strictly prohibited. Spam in any form including knowingly or unknowingly is not accepted or tolerated by PinedCloud.

The transmission of spam from our servers and network may cause irreparable financial damage as well as may have a serious impact on the reputation of PinedCloud. Any such activity will be prosecuted with the strictest of laws.

Cooperation with any Customer who is clearly engaged in sending spam from our servers or network will be terminated immediately and the service from which the spam was sent will be removed without notice.

General restrictions

Backups — PinedCloud does not allow servers to be used as storage space for backups or file sharing etc. If the Customer needs space for archive data or shared files they should use dedicated services or services for this purpose such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

Reselling — Reselling of hosting account space is not allowed on shared services. If you run a web design agency and you want to offer your clients hosting services you should buy a reseller plan or dedicated hosting for this purpose.

Adult content — Under no circumstances is pornography allowed. Nudity and adult profit-oriented e-commerce/stores are allowed as long as they do not violate Polish law. PinedCloud will be the sole arbiter on what constitutes a violation of this provision.

Apache chat — Any interactive web applications such as chat are prohibited on PinedCloud shared hosting accounts (not applicable to dedicated hosting). This includes applications written in PHP, Perl, CGI, Python, Ruby, etc. Any web application that enables real-time chat and uses the resources of any PinedCloud shared server is prohibited, such as: shoutboxes, chatboxes, live chat, helpdesk, etc.

Web applications — Any web applications that are outdated and actively used will be removed from the server immediately without notice. The Client, as webmaster or having its website maintained by a third party or other entity, should be able to evaluate the web applications and scripts it uses. The Customer shall keep them under constant review by assessing their condition, currency and security level.

Forums and any applications that use comment systems should have a spam protection or moderation system. CAPTCHA is a popular mechanism for eliminating a significant proportion of spam bots on a site.

Other

• It is prohibited to create so-called SEO link farms or similar on PinedCloud servers.
• Banner rotation services and link exchange networks are prohibited, such as ADServer hosting.
• Offering services related to archiving and storing data (files, photos, documents, multimedia, etc.) is prohibited.
• Storage of files on the server for publication on external services is prohibited, e.g. storage of photos published on Allegro auctions.
• The generation of artificial web traffic, e.g. via social bot software, is prohibited.
• Storing a public mirroring of a page is prohibited.
• Use of the service for database hosting (MySQL/PostgreSQL) of sites hosted outside the PinedCloud infrastructure is prohibited.
• Running a public or private proxy server or anonymizer is prohibited.
• Running BitTorrent applications, trackers and clients used for any file-sharing or peer-to-peer activity is prohibited.
• Serving game servers (such as but not limited to Minecraft, Counter-Strike, Half-Life) is prohibited.
• Provision of guestbook services, statistics, aliases, forums, blogs, etc. as a public service platform is prohibited where it creates uncontrolled load.
• Spider and indexing applications are prohibited.
• IRC scripts/bots are prohibited.
• Proxy scripts / anonymizers are prohibited.
• Pirated software / warez is prohibited.
• Image hosting scripts (such as Photobucket or Tinypic) are prohibited.
• AutoSurf / PTC / PTS / PPC sites are prohibited.
• Scripts such as Adder, Publiker, Escat, OmniADD/Ping/CRM, RapidLeech are prohibited.
• IP scanners are prohibited.
• Bruteforce programs/scripts and applications are prohibited.
• Spam scripts are prohibited.
• Scripts like RapidShare are prohibited.
• Audio and video streaming is prohibited.
• Sites that promote illegal activity are prohibited.
• Forums or sites that distribute links to warez, pirated content or other illegal content are prohibited.
• Anonymous or bulk SMS gateways are prohibited.
• All other types of content and activity that may increase the use of server resources are prohibited.

The aforementioned service/content provisions that may create excessive or uncontrolled system loads on PinedCloud servers may only be run in an appropriate environment (e.g. dedicated server). Any violations will result in account deactivation, suspension, or even termination.

General resource constraints

• Maximum instant CPU core utilization is 35% (level depends on your hosting plan)
• Maximum average CPU core utilization 5%
• Maximum instant RAM consumption is 1 GB (level depends on your hosting plan)
• The number of simultaneous processes should not exceed 15
• The number of open files must not exceed 64
• Programs cannot run in the background or listen on a network port. If you want to run your own bot or daemon you should consider a dedicated server service.

These restrictions do not apply to dedicated hosting services. In such a situation, the configuration of resource usage is carried out in consultation with the Client.

Database restrictions

• All database users are limited to 30 simultaneous connections to the database server
• The database must not exceed a size of 1 GB
• The maximum number of select queries to the database per hour is 100,000
• Maximum number of changes in databases (insert, update, delete) is maximum 50,000 per hour
• Maximum number of connections to the database per hour is 10,000
• Maximum duration of a single database query is 15 seconds
• Database servers can only be used by sites hosted on PinedCloud
• Remote access to databases can only be used for administrative purposes

These restrictions do not apply to dedicated hosting services.

Files and directories

• The total number of nodes (each page file, PHP file, directory, etc., is 1 node) cannot exceed 100,000
• A single directory cannot directly contain more than 2,500 nodes. This includes directories within, but without their contents.

These restrictions do not apply to dedicated hosting services.

Web / Apache / Nginx

• The number of simultaneous connections from one source to Apache at the same time must not exceed 50
• Processes should not generate subprocesses

These restrictions do not apply to dedicated hosting services.

Mail

• A single process should not send mail to more than 25 recipients
• Maximum mailing list size is 1,000 recipients
• POP calls are limited to 60 per hour
• SMTP connections (outgoing mails) are limited to 100 / hour / domain
• Maximum number of messages stored in the account: 5,000
• Mailing lists with more than 1,000 recipients require a dedicated server. Splitting lists into smaller ones to circumvent this limit is prohibited
• Any mailing list with more than 600 recipients can be used to send emails only during off-peak hours, i.e. Saturday, Sunday or weekdays between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m.
• Each mailing list must be configured to send emails with a frequency of at least 1 email every 10 seconds
• We do not allow mailings to address databases that you have purchased or received. This is spam, and we do not tolerate this type of activity

These restrictions do not apply to dedicated hosting services.

Cron

• The cron jobs should use the “nice” command. We allow a value of 15 or greater
• Cron jobs should not run with a frequency of less than 15 minutes

These restrictions do not apply to dedicated hosting services.

Shell

• Our servers should not be used as an SSH point to other servers/networks
• You cannot use the “find” command recursively on directories with 5 or more levels

Dedicated IP addresses

Requesting a private IP address requires a specific justification. A justification could be, for example, an SSL certificate.

No limits

For some hosting plans, PinedCloud does not impose limits such as a cap on the capacity that a Customer can use. PinedCloud makes every effort to ensure that its Customers have the appropriate amount of disk space and data transfer needed to operate their websites within the limitations outlined in this document. PinedCloud monitors all servers on an automated and non-automated basis to ensure that no Customer adversely affects the accounts of other PinedCloud Customers using the same server.

Please note that shared hosting plans are designed to host websites. Using them for purposes such as data archiving space (e.g. backups), storing file repositories, MP3, video, photo archives, etc. is prohibited. Violation of these rules may result in immediate termination of the contract without refund.

PinedCloud provides users with bandwidth, disk space and other resources, such as email support for FTP accounts etc., the parameters of which are specified on the PinedCloud pages describing each hosting plan. In some cases, PinedCloud does not provide a specific amount of bandwidth, disk space and other resources and they are then marked as “Unlimited”. In all these cases, the hosting services are intended for normal use for website and email purposes. PinedCloud reserves the right to suspend, terminate or delete accounts of users whose use of disk space, bandwidth or other resources causes or raises the risk of interference with PinedCloud’s services to other Customers regardless of the amount of disk space, bandwidth or other server resources.

Space on shared hosting services is for normal use which means that it is limited to web files, active e-mails, and the content of hosted web pages, and not for storage (of media, e-mail, or other data). The hosting space may not be used as storage for electronic files, email, or FTP servers. Customer is responsible for deleting any files, email, or other data that does not meet these requirements. Failure to do so may result in the deletion of such material (including, without limitation, files and emails), and/or termination of service or other actions PinedCloud may take in its sole discretion.

Failure to comply with policy

Failure to fully comply with the resource usage policy is grounds for account suspension and/or termination without refund.

We reserve the right to terminate your account, without notice. If account deletion or blocking occurs as a result of a violation of this policy, you will lose your refund rights.

Questions

The examples mentioned in this document are a general guide and are not exhaustive. If you have a question about whether the content you publish or the data you store on your hosting account is infringing, please contact Abuse at abuse@pinedcloud.com.