Terms of Service

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TERMS OF SERVICE

By applying for free or purchased hosting of any kind or additional service, or account or product from GraniteNet Inc. (GraniteNet), you (The Customer) are entering into an agreement with GraniteNet that is bound by the Terms of Service (“TOS”) outlined in this document. This Agreement shall be construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of the state of QLD, Australia applicable to contracts enforceable in that state. By completing the ordering or application or registration processes, you agree to have read, understood, and be bound by these Terms of Service.

  1. Definitions

1.1 Hosting service – Any shared or virtual service used to store and deliver web based content.

1.2 Additional services – Any product or service that is considered an “addon” to a primary hosting service, or which covers one off charges for additional work carried out by a GraniteNet staff member.

1.3 Resource usage – Any and all allocated resources provided to the customer to allow for the storage and delivery of the the web based content within a hosting service. This includes but is not limited to disk space, Memory, CPU, Bandwidth

1.4 Subscription – The term (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually) applicable to the purchased service.

1.5 Members Portal – Various account management interfaces for managing the billing aspects of hosting or additional services purchased including invoices, contact information, and domain registrations.

1.6 Digital service – Any services offered by GraniteNet that are digital in nature.

  1. Fees

2.1 Payment – Establishment of any hosting or additional service is dependent upon receipt by GraniteNet of payment of stated charges as outlined on any GraniteNet websites or any other documentation or custom quote provided to The Customer. Subsequent payments are due on the anniversary date of the subscription term in advance for the following subscription term’s service. All service fees are disclosed within a product description or will be disclosed to the customer prior to payment being required for any custom quotations or services ordered via phone.

2.2 Setup Fee – The Customer agrees to pay in advance and in full any amount of a non-recurring nature required for the initial deployment of the purchased digital service. Any such fees are listed as setup fees in the service description or will be disclosed in any custom quotations prior to any server provisioning, equipment acquisition or installation by GraniteNet.

2.3 Recurring fee – Subscriptions for most Digital services & Hosting service provided by GraniteNet are not recurring by nature and the Customer agrees to pay any fees listed in the Service description by each anniversary date until such time as The Customer submits a cancellation request in accordance with these Terms of Service.

2.4 Non-Refundable Fees – Certain fees paid to GraniteNet are considered non-refundable due to the nature of the product or service purchased and this includes but is not limited to the following:

2.4.1 Third Party Products – Products supplied by GraniteNet where GraniteNet acts as a reseller for another provider (e.g. domain registrations, SSL certificates, third party product licences) are provided as non-refundable products and refunds cannot be provided once the product has been activated on an account.

2.4.2 Advanced Administration Time – Services where additional labour is to be carried out by GraniteNet staff are non-refundable once the additional labour has been carried out.

2.5 Additional Resource Usage fees – Should Customer exceed the total amount of included hosting resource utilization as described in Service Definitions. Customer agrees that coverage fees will apply and be due immediately. Current pricing for additional resource utilization is resource specific and maintained in the various membership panels.

2.6 Invoices and Statements – invoices are provided to The Customer by email using the contact email address assigned by the Customer or any additional billing contacts within the GraniteNet billing system. Invoices can be sent via postal mail upon request with acknowledgement that an additional $1.50 will be billed to cover the cost of sending the invoice.

2.7 Statements – GraniteNet provides written or printed statements. Depending on the nature of The Clients requirement, a fee of $0.40 per page may be applicable and is charged at the discretion of the GraniteNet staff. Statements can be sent via postal mail upon request with acknowledgement that an additional fee will be billed to cover the cost of sending the statement.

2.8 Failure to Pay – GraniteNet may temporarily deny service or reduce service level or terminate this Agreement upon the failure of The Customer to pay a subscriptions applicable recurring fees where the fees reach 28 days past due. Such termination or denial will not relieve The Customer of responsibility for the payment of all accrued charges, plus reasonable interest and any collection fees. Accounts that are not collectable by GraniteNet may be turned over to an outside collection agency for collection which may result in additional fees or fines being payable.

  1. Refunds, Disputes and Cancellations

3.1 Money Back Guarantee – GraniteNet provides a 14 day Money Back Guarantee only where the Digital services product you purchased was not performing as advertised.

3.2 Refunds – All payments to GraniteNet are non-refundable, except where the money back period is applicable and the refund request is made within 14 days of the service signup date. One time setup and additional fees are non-refundable except where an ordered hosting or additional service cannot be provided by GraniteNet. Where an ordered service cannot be provided but an alternative service is provided in its place, all applicable one-time setup fees will remain payable. Refunds are not provided automatically and must be requested by the customer within 30 days of requesting cancellation in writing. Where an alternate 3rd party service is ordered (with customer consent) a refund is only applicable within the terms of the 3rd party provider.

3.3 Disputes – All overcharges or billing disputes must be reported within 60 days of the time the dispute occurred. If you dispute a charge to your credit card issuer that, in GraniteNet’s sole discretion is a valid charge under the provisions of these Terms of Service, you agree to pay GraniteNet an “Administrative Fee” of not less than $50 and not more than $150

3.4 Service Cancellation by The Customer – Whereby GraniteNet provides an ongoing recurring service which will remain active until such time as The Customer submits a cancellation request by cancelling their service from their account panel or in writing. Requests for canceling accounts must be received within 14 business days prior to the next due date to ensure no further fees are payable.

3.4.1 No Cancellation Fee – GraniteNet does not charge a cancellation fee and does not refund prepaid fees except where the Money Back Guarantee is applicable.

3.4.2 No Access to Account – If The Customer wishes to cancel a service and is unable to access the Members Portal for any reason, The Customer must make contact with GraniteNet via phone or support ticket to obtain necessary login information or instructions to proceed with the cancellation request.

3.4.3 Customer Data – Upon successful cancellation of a hosting or digital service, all data stored within the cancelled service will be removed. GraniteNet does not provide any guarantees that The Customer’s data will be retrievable once the cancellation process has been completed. Should The Customer require a copy of the media uploaded to the server, written request must be made 14 days prior to cancellation. The Customer agrees to pay a fee of $10.00 for retrieval and burning to a DVD or CD and any other applicable fees and mailing costs associated.

3.5 Service Cancellation by GraniteNet – GraniteNet may cancel or suspend The Customer’s hosting or digital service for any breach of these Terms of Service or the AUP without prior notification. GraniteNet does not provide any guarantees that The Customer’s data will be retrievable once the cancellation process has been completed. Gross breaches of the AUP will result in cancellation of the account without notice, and is at the discretion of GraniteNet.

  1. Account Ownership

4.1 Account Ownership

4.1.1 Account Owner – The highest authority of a single Members Portal Account is considered the Account Owner. Individual hosting or additional services that are associated with an account, are controlled by the Account Owner and modifications and updates to an account’s information can only be actioned by the Account Owner or their Authorised Additional Contact. The Account Owner is established at the time the account is created. The details of an Account Owner must be that of a real person. It is not permitted to use fictitious or “fake” names for the details of an Account Owner. Accounts containing fictitious or “fake” names, and contact details that do not reflect the details of a real person may be suspended or terminated without notice.

4.1.2 Community Groups & Entities – In addition to sub section 4.1.1, whereby an entity application is received, The Account Owner is established at the time the account application is received, and is considered owned by the entity. The details of an Account Owner must be that of a real entity. GraniteNet may request supportive information from the entity on any changes to the ownership as it sees fit.

4.2. Account Information – The Customer warrants that all information provided to GraniteNet is truthful and correct and accurate and up to date and that the person designated as the Account Owner is of or above 18 years of age and is legally empowered to act and enter into this contract as The Customer or on behalf of The Customer as indicated on the relevant application form.

4.2.1 Maintaining Account Information – The Customer is responsible for maintaining the contact information stored within their account and failure to maintain up to date contact information does not warrant the waiving of any fees, overdue fees, or warnings issued by GraniteNet.

4.3 Authorised Additional Contact – The Account Owner may add and authorise an additional contact person or persons to act on their behalf within applicable digital services. The Account Owner may add additional contacts or editors as they deem appropriate.

For any additional contact added to an account to be able to request account modifications, the Authorised Additional Contact must be configured as a sub-contact with their own login information and have appropriate permissions set. If the Authorised Additional Contact is not activated as a sub-account, the contact will only have limited permissions to support for a service and will not be able to request configuration changes to the hosting or domain services unless in writing with a common seal (where an entity is the designated account owner) or where explicit permission has been granted by the account owner prior to or at the time of the request.

4.4 Account Transfer – The Account Owner role can be transferred to another Authorised Additional Contact or GraniteNet Customer by contacting our support team to obtain the appropriate steps. To contact billing support via the ticket system, please click here or use the support portal from within your account management portal.

4.5 Account Closure – An account may be automatically deactivated when no active hosting or digital service is being utilised.

4.5.1 Account Closure Request by 3rd Party – A third party may request the closure of an account whereby the TOS and AUP is violated, by contacting us directly. We will proceed to investigate the violation and at our sole discretion choose the appropriate solution.

  1. Domain Registrations, Transfers and Renewals

5.1 Domain Registrations – successful domain registrations that have completed the registration process and are considered active by the Domain Registrar are final and cannot be cancelled or refunded. Some domain extensions may require additional information to complete the registration and GraniteNet provides no guarantees that an ordered domain registration will be successful. It is The Customer’s sole responsibility to ascertain what information is required to register a particular domain prior to placing any domain registration orders. Domains may be checked for validity and availability direct from your control panel. Domains may be registered and linked to your content in writing at any time.

5.2 Domain Transfers – Domain transfers typically take 5-7 days to complete once final authorisation has been received by the Domain Registrar, with the exception of .au domains which take 48 hours once final authorisation has been actioned. GraniteNet has no authority to speed up a domain transfer and cannot place any guarantees on how long a transfer will take to complete. The Customer must ensure all contact information is updated with current Domain Registrar and the appropriated transfer codes have been obtained prior to placing a domain transfer order with GraniteNet. The Customer agrees to pay any fees at cost associated with the transfer and a flat transfer fee of $10.00 for covering our time to complete the process on a per domain basis. To transfer a domain to our provider, please contact us.

5.3 Domain Renewal – Domains must be renewed prior to their expiration date to avoid the domain becoming inactive. Multiple notifications are sent to The Customer advising them of upcoming domain renewals starting from 60 days prior to the listed expiry date. GraniteNet has no control over keeping the domain active once it has reached its expiry and does not take responsibility for a website becoming inaccessible due to The Customer not renewing their domain.

5.4 Third Party Domain Hosting – GraniteNet cannot guarantee quality of service where a domain has been registered with a 3rd party registrar. Such domains will need to have their name servers pointed to the following in order to maximise the potential of their domain names;

Name Server 1:          ns1081.ifastnet.com                 185.27.133.14

Name Server 2:          ns2081.ifastnet.com                 185.27.133.15

5.5 Domain Provisioning Provider – GraniteNet uses Crazy Domains as it’s sole domain provider, domains are registered and transferred to our account, however ownership is maintained with the register and with AUP & ICANN.

5.6 Transfer a domain away from GraniteNet – To transfer a domain away from GraniteNet, A request must be made in writing to GraniteNet to provide the transfer EPP code.

5.7 Domain Records – By default GraniteNet does not permit direct record editing, however an email or support ticket from the domain owner or associated entity requesting the changes with a valid contact number is considered appropriate whereby the changes do not require approval by an entity. (Such as sub-domains) Where a critical change is to be made that may create instability to content, approval will be sought by GraniteNet.

  1. General Terms and Support Boundaries

6.1 Support Boundaries – GraniteNet provides technical support to it’s direct customers only and does so in accordance with it’s defined support boundaries. GraniteNet’s support is designed to assist customers with the use of and connections to the hosting service and does not extend to diagnosing or fixing issues that relate to the coding of a website or 3rd party web application hosted within The Customer hosting or Digital service.

6.1.1 Support to Customers of The Customer – GraniteNet does not provide direct technical support to customers of The Customer. and customers who have multiple individual hosting accounts under a single Members Portal account must not advise their customers to contact GraniteNet directly and should instead contact GraniteNet on their customer’s behalf. GraniteNet is happy to assist with all support issues that fall within the scope of our support boundaries when contacted by The Customer.

6.2 Advanced Support – Where GraniteNet can and agrees to provide advanced support to The Customer, additional service fees are required for the provision of the advanced support. Fees for advanced support are payable in arrears based on the time actuals by GraniteNet for the additional task to be carried out. GraniteNet provides no guarantees that an issue or task will be resolved within the estimated time, and if further time is required, additional advanced support time will need to be paid for prior to any further labour being carried out.

6.3 Responsibility for Content and Account Activity – The Customer is solely responsible for the content stored on and served by the hosting or digital service provided by GraniteNet and the activity of any scripts or email services created under the hosting service. The Customer must maintain the security of all account passwords and applications or scripts and ensure all scripts under the hosting service are free from malicious content that may harm any part of the GraniteNet infrastructure, other client accounts hosted by GraniteNet, or the external systems of visitors viewing the hosted content.

6.3.1 Acceptable Usage – The Customer must ensure at all times they comply with GraniteNet’s Acceptable Usage Policy(AUP) and must not host any content or allow any account activity that breaches the AUP. Breaches to the AUP are governed by the following conditions:

6.3.1.1 First violation – When GraniteNet determines a hosting or digital service has violated any element of the AUP, The Customer shall receive an email warning advising of the violation. The hosting service may at GraniteNet’s discretion be subject to a temporary suspension pending The Customer’s agreement in writing to refrain from any further violations.

6.3.1.2 Second Violation – When GraniteNet determines a hosting or digital service has committed a second violation of any element of the AUP, the hosting or digital service shall be subject to immediate suspension or termination without further notice.

6.3.1.3 Suspension of Service or Cancellation – GraniteNet reserves the right to suspend access to The Customer’s hosting or digital service if in the judgment of GraniteNet The Customer’s service is the source or target of the violation of any of the terms of the AUP or these terms of service. If inappropriate activity is detected, all accounts of The Customer in question will be deactivated until an investigation is complete. Prior notification to the Customer is not assured and in extreme cases, law enforcement will be contacted regarding the activity. The Customer will not be credited for the time the hosting service is suspended.

6.3.2 Web applications – The Customer must ensure all self-hosted web applications utilised on the hosting service are kept secure, patched and up to date. Open source applications are vulnerable to attacks via exploits in the software, and the developer’s of the software generally provide updates when vulnerabilities have been detected. It is The Customer’s responsibility to install any and all updates/patches to maintain the application’s security. If The Customer does not have the required skill to perform the updates, The Customer will need to employ the services of a Web Developer or GraniteNet support who is able to assist.

6.3.3 Maintaining Compatibility – The nature of our networked hosting environments and server applications such as Apache, PHP and MySQL is that they are constantly being updated to maintain stability, performance and security. Keeping web based applications patched and up to date ensures both a secure website and data, and is also essential to maintain compatibility with changes in server applications. GraniteNet incrementally updates all server applications on a regular basis and it is the responsibility of The Customer to maintain installed web applications to ensure compatibility with the latest stable and supported releases of all server applications.

6.4 Resource Usage – All hosting services, free and purchased have a variety of resource limitations applied in accordance to the applicable plan associated with the service. It is The Customer’s responsibility to ensure their hosting or digital service does not exceed the resources allocated and to upgrade their service if it is determined more resources are required to continue the smooth operation of a hosting or digital service (where applicable).

6.4.1 Resource Usage Abuse (excludes Dedicated Server Customers) – GraniteNet implements per account resource restrictions on all hosting and digital services which will vary from plan to plan. In addition to these, customers must not:

  1. Use 50% or more of the allocated CPU resources for more than 60 seconds.
  2. Run stand-alone, unattended server-side processes at any point in time on the server. This includes any and all daemons, such as IRCD.
  3. Run an account on any shared or reseller server as a file store for content not related to the operation and delivery of their web applications or that may breach the GraniteNet AUP.
  4. Run any type of indexing software on any service.
  5. Run any software that interfaces with an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network.
  6. Run any type of bit torrent application or tracker or participate in any illegal file-sharing activities.
  7. Run cron tasks on a service with intervals of less than 5 minutes.
  8. Run excessively large MySQL databases within their free service. Databases with an excessive number of MySQL tables (in excess of 1000) or of a size greater than 1GB can negatively affect the performance of the server and will require a stand-alone account to be purchased.
  9. Run any MySQL queries longer than 15 seconds on our services.
  10. Store multiple backups of a hosting service on any shared hosting server. Backup archives created by a server’s backup tools are designed to be downloaded off the server for maintaining offsite backups. Making backups that contain other backup archives can cause heavy load on the storage arrays and is strictly forbidden. Any hosting services found to have multiple backups on the server may have them removed without prior notification.
  11. Store emails in the trash folder for longer than 30 days. Emails that have been in the Trash folder for more than 30 days will be automatically deleted.
  12. Access to the cloud is exceeding 4gb Bandwidth per month. Bandwidth to the cloud that exceeds 4gb per month ‘may’ require a standalone service.

6.4.2 Inodes – Every file hosted on GraniteNet servers uses 1 inode and accounts considered to be using an excessive number of inodes on our servers will be required to upgrade their hosting or digital service or remove some of the files from their hosting service. Normal services with an inode count of 20,000 or more is considered excessive and is generally the result of issues within a web application or a web application configuration that is not appropriate for our hosting environment.

6.4.3 Bandwidth / Data Transfer Monitoring – Bandwidth / Data Transfer is monitored in a variety of ways across our range of services as outlined below:

  1. Business, Personal and Community Group hosting plans are only monitored for high usage. This is done to ensure services using large amounts of bandwidth are doing so in accordance with our Terms of Service.
    2. All bandwidth is monitored on a calendar month cycle and may not correspond to the exact billing cycle of the service.
    3. Customer alerts are sent to the registered contact email address on file prior to any fixed bandwidth quota being reached. It is the customer’s responsibility to contact GraniteNet to apply a suitable upgrade or addon for the affected service to cover any extra usage beyond the fixed plan quota.
    4. For Personal and Business hosting plans with fixed bandwidth quotas, exceeding the assigned quota will result in overage charges being applied. To avoid the higher overage charges, the service needs to be upgraded to the next plan that provides sufficient bandwidth to meet the customer’s requirements.
    5. For FREE services bandwidth is limited to a flexible 1gb per month.

6.4.4 Bandwidth Abuse – GraniteNet reserves the right to shape, suspend, or terminate the service of any customer that is causing issues or performance problems for other customers on the GraniteNet network. GraniteNet reserves the right in a situation where a customers traffic is causing unviable costs to its business to either charge the customer at a rate that is viable (change plan/rate) or suspend/terminate the service.

6.5 Gaming Servers – GraniteNet does not allow gaming servers on any part of our network. Services that are found to be in breach of this clause face immediate suspension without prior notification.

  1. Third Party Tools, Applications and Licenses

7.1 Third Party Applications and Licenses – GraniteNet may provide access to additional third party software and/or services (“Third Party Products “) through reseller or other commercial agreements GraniteNet has established with certain vendors (“Third Party Vendors”). Unless otherwise stated, The Customer understands that product support for Third Party Products is provided by GraniteNet and not by the Third Party Vendor. Neither GraniteNet nor any Third Party Vendor makes any representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding any Third Party Products. The Customer expressly acknowledges and agrees that use of Third Party Products is at The Customer’s sole risk and such third party products are provided “as is” and without representation or warranty of any kind from GraniteNet or any Third Party Vendor, including without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy or completeness of responses or results, correspondence to description, or non-infringement of third party rights. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, neither GraniteNet nor any third party vendor will be legally responsible for any damages, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from the use or inability to use any third party product. The Customer agrees to observe the terms of any license and/or applicable end user subscriber agreement for Third Party Products and The Customer shall be fully liable to Third Party Vendors and/or GraniteNet with respect to any improper use of such Third Party Products or violation of license agreements with them and/or applicable end user subscriber agreements.

7.2 Feature Availability – GraniteNet provides no guarantees that any or all of the features available within a Third Party Product will be supported or made available to The Customer. It is at the sole discretion of GraniteNet to determine which features are enabled and whether GraniteNet will provide support for the use of enabled features.

  1. Additional Legal Information

8.1 Disclosure to Law Enforcement – GraniteNet’s AUP specifically prohibits the use of our service for illegal activities and The Customer agrees that GraniteNet may disclose any and all customer information including IP numbers, account history, account use, etc. to any law enforcement agent who makes a written request without further consent or notification to The Customer. GraniteNet reserves the right to immediately terminate any hosting service found to be hosting content and performing activities of an illegal nature.

8.2 System and Network Security – Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the GraniteNet Network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. GraniteNet will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include without limitation:

  1. Accessing data not intended for such User or logging into a server or account, which such User is not authorized to access.
  2. Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization.
  3. Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, “flooding”, “mail bombing” or “crashing”.
    4. Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting.
    5. Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled.

8.3 Disclaimer – Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information provided on the GraniteNet website and by GraniteNet staff is accurate and free from errors, GraniteNet provides no warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to the service’s fitness for a particular purpose, except where to not offer any such warranties would be deemed unlawful as defined by the Trade Practices Act 1974(Cth).

8.4 Limitation of Liability – GraniteNet provides no guarantees that any hosting or additional service provided will be free from errors or interruptions. GraniteNet will not accept liability for any costs or losses incurred by The Customer that result from:

  1. the use of or inability to use any GraniteNet service;
    2. any errors, mistakes, omissions, interruptions, defects, or delays in operation or delivery;
    3. unauthorised access to GraniteNet’s data or services,
    4. the suspension or termination of services due to breaches of the AUP.
    5. the suspension or termination of services due to obligations under law

8.5 Indemnification – The customer agrees to indemnify GraniteNet from any and all demands, liabilities, losses, costs and claims, including reasonable legal fees asserted against GraniteNet, that may arise or result from the use of any hosting or digital service provided.

8.6 Modification to these Terms – GraniteNet reserves the right to amend, update or change these terms of service without prior notification. Where changes are made that may impact The Customer’s use of a GraniteNet service, The Customer will be advised by email using the primary email contact details within an account and the continuance in operation by The Customer of any hosting or additional services will constitute an acceptance of these Terms of Service.

 

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