Legal Documents & Privacy Policy

Resource Usage Policies

Understanding Resource Usage Policies is crucial for all Hostwek customers. (Please read carefully!) These policies are designed to ensure fair usage and optimal performance for all users. By using Hostwek services, you agree to adhere to these resource usage policies.

What are Resource Usage Policies?

In hosting environments, a server's resources are akin to what economists refer to as a common pool resource. While having ample system resources benefits everyone, individual users may not have an incentive to limit their resource usage. To protect against the tragedy of the (server) commons, we have established limits on the amount of a server's resources that any given user may consume. These are just limits, and server abuse is not confined to these policies. It is at Hostwek's discretion to determine what constitutes server abuse.

The Purpose of These Policies

These policies are in place to protect you, our customers, from poor service quality. Typically, if an account needs to be restricted for resource abuse, it is in violation of at least two of these policies (or one policy to a very serious degree) and is negatively affecting other clients on the server. The vast majority of sites, at least 99.5%, will never need to consider these limits. However, it's wise to be aware of them.

General Content & Service Restrictions

• Backups: Hostwek's servers are not to be used as a backup/storage system.
• Reselling: Reselling is not allowed on Web Hosting and WordPress Hosting plans. A reseller hosting plan must be purchased if reselling is desired.
• Adult Content: Pornography is strictly prohibited. Nudity, adult-oriented e-commerce stores, and similar content are allowed if legal in the United States of America. Hostwek will be the sole arbiter of what constitutes a violation of this provision.
• Chat Applications: All interactive chat web applications are strictly prohibited on Hostwek's servers. This includes chat applications written in various programming languages as well as IRC or IRC bots. Any web application that provides 'real-time' chat is not permitted. Chatboxes, live chat programs, and other web-based chat programs are prohibited.
• Web Applications & Web Accessible Scripts: All outdated web applications that are being actively exploited will be shut down immediately without notice. Regularly evaluate your web-based applications and scripts for security and updates. Forums and applications with commenting systems should have spam protection or moderation, such as CAPTCHA.
• General: SEO farms, banner rotation services, link exchange networks, image/file/document/data storage services, free hosting and email services, off-site media storage, public mirror sites, proxies or anonymizers, prime bank or bank debenture-related sites, bitcoin sites, lottery sites, online RPGs, hate sites, hacker-related sites, sites promoting illegal activity, IP scanners, hacking tools, mail bombing or spam scripts, warez content distribution, bit torrent applications, file-sharing/peer-to-peer activities, gaming servers, web spiders, and indexers are strictly forbidden on Hostwek's servers and networks. These services/web content create undue system load and should only be run in a dedicated server environment.

All violations will be shut down immediately and may result in account suspension and/or termination. If you have a question about whether your content is in violation, please email our Abuse Department for clarification.

Resource Usage Restrictions

At Hostwek, we utilize the CloudLinux system to set limits on the resources available to shared hosting accounts. These limits are in place to ensure fair usage and optimal performance for all users. Our shared hosting packages are designed to support the following CloudLinux resource limits:

• CPU Speed Limit: This is measured relative to a single core. Our shared hosting packages start from 100% (equivalent to 1 CPU core).
• Physical Memory Limit: This includes both shared memory and disk cache. Measured in MB, our hosting packages start from 1024MB.
• IO Throughput: This combines both read and write operations. Measured in MB/s, our shared hosting packages offer a limit of 10MB per second.
• IOPS: This restricts the total number of read/write operations per second. Our shared hosting packages have a limit of 1024 operations per second.
• EP (Entry Processes): This represents the maximum number of concurrent connections to dynamic scripts, as well as SSH and cron jobs running simultaneously. Our packages start with a limit of 10 entry processes.
• NPROC (Number of Processes): This is the maximum number of processes within LVE. Our shared hosting accounts are limited to 100 processes.

Detailed technical information on CloudLinux limits can be found on the CloudLinux Documentation website.

These limits are subject to variation depending on the hosting package in use and are recommended according to the level of resources required:

Web Hosting Plans:

1. Starter: Maximum 100% CPU resources and 1024 MB memory; IO: 10 MB/s; IOPS: 1024; up to 10 entry processes.
2. Growth: Maximum 200% CPU resources and 2048 MB memory; IO: 10 MB/s; IOPS: 1024; up to 15 entry processes.
3. Wek Premium: Maximum 300% CPU resources and 3072 MB memory; IO: 10 MB/s; IOPS: 1024; up to 30 entry processes.

WordPress Hosting Plans:

1. WP Starter: Maximum 100% CPU resources and 1024 MB memory; IO: 10 MB/s; IOPS: 1024; up to 10 entry processes.
2. WP Pro: Maximum 200% CPU resources and 2048 MB memory; IO: 10 MB/s; IOPS: 1024; up to 15 entry processes.
3. WP Turbo: Maximum 300% CPU resources and 3072 MB memory; IO: 10 MB/s; IOPS: 1024; up to 30 entry processes.

Resource Usage Enforcement

It is important to note that many of these limits are considered "hard" limits. If your account starts to affect the overall performance of a server, we need to have limits and policies in place to address the issue.

Customers using shared hosting services are provided with detailed, up-to-date statistics for their CPU and memory usage in the service control panel (cPanel). Customers are responsible for maintaining their accounts and any installed software in a proper manner to ensure all installed software operates optimally and account resources are released and available to other users as soon as possible to ensure optimal performance of the hosting environment for all customers sharing the resource.

If an account is found to be in violation of these Resource Usage Policies, we will do our best to work with clients to provide 48 hours, 5 days, or 10 days' notice, depending on the severity of the violation. Customers who exceed the level of consumption 100 times (100 Faults) within 24 hours will be notified by the tech department with the purpose of website optimization or shifting to a plan compatible with the level of consumption.

We reserve the right, as outlined in the Terms of Service, to limit an account's resource usage limits if it is causing a severe problem.

Database Restrictions

• All users are restricted to 30 concurrent MySQL connections.
• Database queries should not exceed 3,000 per hour.
• Database changes (insert/update/delete) should not exceed 1,000 queries per hour.
• Database servers should not be used as a hosted solution. Database access should only be used for the website hosted by Hostwek.
• Remote database access is for administrative purposes only.

Files and Directories

The total number of inodes in an account may not exceed the values listed below. Every file (a webpage, image, email, PHP file, directory, etc.) on your account uses up one (1) inode.

• Shared Hosting plans:
1. Starter – maximum 250,000 inodes
2. Growth – maximum 350,000 inodes
3. Wek Premium – maximum 600,000 inodes
• WordPress Hosting plans:
1. WP Starter – maximum 250,000 inodes
2. WP Pro – maximum 350,000 inodes
3. WP Turbo – maximum 600,000 inodes

A single log file should not exceed 1 GB in size. The total size of all similar log files should not exceed 5 GB in size. A directory cannot contain more than 2,500 immediate child files. This includes subdirectories themselves but does not include files contained within those directories.

Web

• Simultaneous Apache connections may not exceed 50 from one individual source at any given time.
• Web processes should not fork or spawn subprocesses.

Email and Mailing Lists

Unsolicited Bulk/Commercial Email / SPAM

The use of Hostwek servers and networks to transmit unsolicited bulk/commercial email (also known as spam) is strictly forbidden. Under no circumstance is the transmission of spam acceptable or tolerated.

The transmission of spam from our servers and networks can cause irreparable monetary and reputation damage. All damages caused by spamming will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Any client caught explicitly spamming from our servers or networks will have their account immediately terminated without notice.

To maintain the integrity and reliability of our email services, we have established the following sending limits:

• Hourly limit: Users are limited to sending a maximum of 300 emails per domain per hour.
• Daily limit: Users are limited to sending a maximum of 3,000 emails per domain per day.
• Weekly limit: Users are limited to sending a maximum of 10,000 emails per domain per week.

Processes should not send outbound mail to more than 25 recipients at any given time. The maximum number of members per mailing list is 1,500. POP connections are limited to 60 per hour. SMTP connections (outbound email connections) are limited to 500 per hour per server account. Mailing lists larger than 1,500 will require a VPS service from us. Dividing one list into smaller parts to get around this limit is not allowed.

Any mailing list must be throttled so that it sends an email every 6 seconds at the very minimum. If the mailing list software you are using doesn't support throttling, you must use something else. We do this as this keeps the server load from going very high and causing problems for other users. If you don't do this, you will be suspended.

We do not allow you to send to a mailing list you were given or that you bought. This is spamming, and we have zero tolerance for this.

Any mailing list must comply with the rules set forth by the United States of America and can be found at http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business.

No Direct SMTP mailing system scripts are permitted. Mail should be relayed through the local MTA.

These limits are in place to prevent excessive use of resources and to ensure fair usage across all users. Failure to adhere to these limits may result in temporary suspension of email services.

Cron Jobs

A cron job should not execute more frequently than once every 15 minutes on a shared hosting service. If set for a shorter time, our system will automatically reset it to 15 minutes without prior notice. For execution frequencies lower than 15 minutes, we offer VPS Hosting services.

Shell

• Our servers should not be used as an SSH bounce point to other servers/networks.
• You may not use the Unix "find" command recursively on directories more than 5 levels deep.

Dedicated IP Addresses

Dedicated IP Addresses require valid justification. Hostwek has the right to decline any dedicated IP requests without any explanation.

Failure To Comply With Policy

Failure to fully comply with these terms is grounds for account suspension and/or termination. We reserve the right to remove any account without prior notice.

Questions

The examples listed herein are a guide and may not be an exhaustive list. If you have a question on whether or not your content is in violation, please create a ticket with our Support Department for clarification.