The quality of our services depend on each and every user behaving reasonably, as abuse of the service can affect both us and other users.
Also, providers of service to us (for example our transit feed carriers) expect us to meet their terms and conditions, in turn, we expect you to do likewise and, of course, you are bound by UK and international law.
This Acceptable Use Policy outlines what we consider to be reasonable behaviour. Much of the following may not be enforceable by law, but if we consider your behaviour to be unreasonable, we reserve the right to withdraw service from you, at any time and without recompense.
This policy is generic to all our internet services, so you may find there are parts of it that are not relevant to you. Note that this policy forms part of our terms and conditions, and may be updated.
Fair Usage
We do not have data limits for Leased lines or DSL products but if consumers are deemed to be using excessive amounts of transit data we will be in contact to resolve the issue.
Abuse
We are mainly concerned about abuse of the internet, not abuse on the internet.
Abuse of the internet covers a multitude of sins, including denial of service attacks, spamming, snooping or spoofing internet traffic, unauthorised access of other peoples machines or networks, propagating viruses, virus hoaxes, or trojans, etc. etc. There is a plethora of information available – Wikipedia is not a bad place to start.
If we believe that you have been abusing the internet, we will discuss this with you, and we may, at our sole discretion, suspend or terminate your account with no notice.
With regard to abuse on the internet, while we do not censor, you shall not do anything unlawful or that is detrimental to our provision of internet service.
If you believe you have been the victim of abuse by one of our customers, please contact that customer first, using contact details from the Ripe Whois Database. It may be that they are not aware they are abusing you (for example they may have a virus or an open mail relay). If you cannot resolve the problem, or you are concerned about making direct contact with the customer, then please contact us and we will act as intermediary, if necessary suspending or terminating the customer account. Please note this is only applicable to abuse of the internet, as we accept no responsibility for the Content propagated by our customers (see below).
Contact Details
If you have a domain supplied by us, you must accept and read email directed to postmaster@your.domain
Your contact details for fixed IP address assignments are published in the Ripe Whois Database.
Your contact details for domain registrations may be published on various whois servers by the registry (for example Nominet for .uk domains).
Content
You are entirely responsible for the content of any information you transmit, receive, or store, for example by email, usenet, web pages, file transfer, etc. You must comply with all relevant law on (amongst others) copyright, libel, defamation, incitement, and material of an indecent, offensive or otherwise illegal nature, and you are bound by Computer Misuse Act 1990. This policy applies both to use of our equipment (for example your web pages hosted on our servers) and to use of your own equipment connected to our network (for example your web pages hosted on your servers connected to our network, either by ADSL or colocation).
This policy applies equally to published information (e.g. web pages or files) and to any messages (e.g. Usenet postings or emails) you send or receive – we are simply the carriers of this information and accept no responsibility for its content. Our position is much like the post office, who do not accept liability for an abusive personal letter sent via the post. As a customer, you must accept that we are carriers of information with no responsibility for its content whether stored in transit or not.
Backups
While we endeavour to avoid losing any data, for example from our web and mail servers, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have backups of all data stored on our network.
Security
Although we take security very seriously, we cannot always guarantee the security of all services. If in doubt, please discuss your concerns with us.
Our broadband services are direct connections to the internet, with no firewalling of any kind. It is your responsibility to provide suitable protection at your end, for example by using a FireBrick, and by applying the latest security patches to all your machines.
You may not send unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE, also known as spam, see what is spam, and Wikipedia).
You may not run an open mail relay (What is an open mail relay?).
You may not forge any headers (for example, the From: address must be a valid address that you are authorised to use).
Usenet (news groups)
We do not offer a Usenet service, but you may use any public Usenet services providing you meet their terms and conditions.
We recommend that you read the Usenet guidelines, and before posting to a newsgroup, check if that group publishes a FAQ or posting guidelines specific to that group (for example many groups do not allow binary attachments or advertising).
You are entirely responsible for the content of anything you post – a usenet posting may be regarded as a public document and you the poster are responsible in law as the publisher.
You may not post spam (see Usenet Net Abuse, what is spam, and Wikipedia).
You may not forge any headers (for example, the From: address must be a valid address that you are authorised to use).
Viruses and Trojans
If a machine connected to our network becomes infected, it can cause excessive use of bandwidth and may infect other machines. It is your responsibility to ensure that all your equipment connected to our network is free from viruses and trojans, and we may contact you if we believe you have an infected machine.