Acceptable Use Policy

Overview

This Acceptable Use Policy sets out what you may and may not do with a ServerNeed service. It applies to every hosting, VPS, dedicated server and reseller account, and it forms part of our terms of service.

Most of it comes down to one idea: you share this platform with other people, and nothing you run should cost them their service. If you are unsure whether something is allowed, ask us before you build on it — that is a much cheaper conversation than the one after a suspension.

Permitted use

You may use our services for any lawful purpose, in line with this policy, our terms of service, and the law that applies to you and to us.

Everything below is an exception to that general permission, not a list of the only things you are allowed to do. Ordinary websites, applications, email, databases and business systems are exactly what these services are for.

Prohibited activities

The following are prohibited on any ServerNeed server, and may result in warning, suspension or termination without a refund:

• Attempting to gain unauthorised access to another account, server or network — ours or a third party's.
• Running scripts or processes that intentionally degrade server performance for other customers.
• Sending unsolicited bulk email, or hosting content advertised through it.
• Distributing malware, viruses or other harmful code.
• Using server resources for denial-of-service attacks or similar network abuse.
• Hosting phishing pages or content designed to defraud people.

If you resell our hosting, this policy applies to your clients as well as to you. Their sites sit on our infrastructure under your account, so you are responsible for their compliance — and for acting when we tell you one of them is in breach.

Illegal content & activities

You may not host, upload, distribute or link to content that is illegal under Bangladeshi law, or under the law of the place the content is aimed at.

This includes content that facilitates fraud, and content whose purpose is to harm or deceive other people. Where we are required by law or by a lawful order to act on content, we will.

Abuse & network security

You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our systems, probe or scan our network, interfere with another customer's service, or do anything that compromises the security, stability or performance of our infrastructure.

This covers using our servers as the source of an attack as well as targeting them: a compromised site of yours sending an attack outward is still abuse from our network, and we will act on it whether or not you meant it to happen.

Keeping your own software patched is part of this. A great deal of abuse begins with an out-of-date plugin rather than a deliberate act.

Spam & email abuse

Unsolicited bulk email is prohibited, as is email harvesting, forging mail headers, and running open relays. Hosting a site that is advertised by spam sent from somewhere else is also prohibited — it is the advertising that makes it spam, not where the mail left from.

Mail from our servers should go to people who asked for it. This is not only a rule: sustained spam gets our mail servers blocklisted, which costs every other customer on the platform their delivery.

Malware & harmful code

You must not upload, store, distribute or execute viruses, malware, spyware, ransomware, cryptominers or other harmful code on our servers or through our services.

If we find harmful code on your account we will tell you and, where it is actively causing harm, we may disable the affected files or the account while it is dealt with.

Resource usage & fair use

Shared and reseller hosting plans are intended for typical websites and applications. Sustained heavy use of CPU, memory, disk I/O or bandwidth by one account affects everybody else on that machine, which is what fair use exists to prevent.

If a single account's usage consistently affects other customers, we will reach out with options first — such as moving to a VPS or a dedicated server, where the resources are yours — before taking any restrictive action.

Where a plan states a limit, that limit is the limit. Your own monitoring of storage and bandwidth is covered in our terms of service.

Intellectual property & content rights

You must respect other people's intellectual property. Do not use our services to infringe copyright, trademarks or other rights, and do not host material you do not have the right to host.

We act on credible infringement complaints. If you believe content on our network infringes your rights, tell us with enough detail to identify it and we will look into it.

Content you upload remains yours — see the terms of service.

Enforcement & suspension

Where the circumstances allow it, we will contact you first and give you a chance to put things right. That is the normal path, and most issues end there.

For active abuse that is affecting other customers or server stability, we may suspend the account immediately and tell you afterwards. We would rather explain a suspension to one customer than an outage to everyone on the machine.

We may investigate suspected breaches, and actions range from a warning through suspension to termination depending on what has happened. Accounts terminated for a policy violation are not eligible for a refund — see our refund policy.

Reporting abuse

If you believe something on our network breaches this policy, please report it. Email abuse@serverneed.com — you do not need a ServerNeed account to send a report, and you will not be asked to create one.

Include the domain or IP address, what you saw, and when. The more precisely a report identifies the content, the faster it can be acted on. Our other contact details are on the support page.

We take reports seriously and investigate them. We will not always be able to tell you what action was taken on someone else's account.

Policy changes

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, the "last updated" date at the top of this page changes with it, and the revised policy is posted here.

Continued use of our services after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. Where a change materially affects what you are allowed to run, we will tell account holders directly rather than rely on you noticing the date.

Contact us

Questions about whether something is allowed under this policy? Ask us before you build on it. We would much rather answer a question up front than suspend a service you have already put work into.

Customers can open a ticket, which is tracked against the account. To report abuse, see reporting abuse above — no account needed.