Terms of Service

PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE CAREFULLY!

These Terms of Service constitute a binding agreement between you, the customer or end user, and HostMetro. All users of HostMetro's services, and all customers upon signing up for said services, agree to comply with the Terms of Service. These Terms of Service are set to ensure customers are using HostMetro's services with due regard to the rights of other Internet users and in conformity with the requirements of HostMetro's network environment. The Terms of Service are not exhaustive and HostMetro reserves the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of these Terms of Service at any time without notice, effective upon the posting of the modified Terms of Service to www.hostmetro.com. Any complaints about a customer's violation of the Terms of Service should be sent to abuse@hostmetro.com. Except when expressly agreed to the contrary in writing by an authorized representative of HostMetro, these Terms of Service supersede any other agreement with HostMetro, whether written, oral, by conduct, or otherwise.

When you agree to these Terms of Service you also agree to our BILLING TERMS.

SITE CONTENT

You are solely responsible for your own website content. It is your responsibility to ensure all scripts, programs, and files on your account are secure, and that all permissions are set properly, regardless of how they were installed. You are responsible for all actions, services, products, information, and content on your site, as well as its quality and maintenance.

You may not use our services to infringe on copyrighted or trademarked material. This includes unauthorized copying or sharing of music, writing, images, video, or other copyrighted material. If your account is hosting trademarked material without authorization, your account will be terminated without refund. If your account is hosting copyrighted material without authorization, the copyrighted content will be removed and your account may be suspended. If your account repeatedly violates copyright laws, your account will be terminated without refund. Please email abuse@hostmetro.com if you believe a website is hosting your copyrighted or trademarked materials without authorization.

Your hosting account may not be used as backup or storage space. We strongly recommend you backup your account to a location other than HostMetro servers, for your own security.

You may not host the following material on HostMetro servers: IRC scripts, proxy scripts, warez, nulled/unlicensed software scripts, IP scanners, bruteforce programs, spam scripts, mirror scripts, commercial audio streaming, sale of any controlled substance, gambling/gaming websites, fraudulent sites, live audio/video streaming, sensitive or classified information, image hosting, and other similar material.

HostMetro servers may be used for lawful purposes only. We may monitor our servers to ensure all content is lawful and all information is authorized for use, to protect against unauthorized access to the account, and to verify account and server security. During server monitoring, we may examine, record, copy, and use information for authorized purposes only.

We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, for any reason. We may remove any material that is illegal, threatening, or violates these terms of service without prior notice, at our discretion.

If your account is deemed a danger to our infrastructure or other HostMetro clients, for reasons including: DDoS attacks, malware propagation, abusive or dangerous scripts or behaviors, copyright infringement, or excessive spam; then HostMetro may remove your account from the servers and discontinue your services without warning. We will offer you a free backup of your site as-is, which you may take elsewhere to host, but we will not continue to host harmful websites. No refunds will be given.

BACKUPS

You are ultimately responsible for backing up your own website content. HostMetro offers free backup services as a courtesy, and we cannot guarantee we will have a backup of your site stored on our servers. Our backup service runs once a month and overwrites any previous backups we have. We only backup accounts under 1GB of total space, and do not keep backups for larger sites. You agree to take full responsibility for maintaining all backups of files and data stored on our servers. To restore your site from a backup, we charge a one-time service fee of $39.95.

If you are actively paying for our Account Backup Service and are not breaking our terms of service, we will take weekly backups of your site, regardless of its size, and store them on our backup drives. You are responsible for taking backups outside of the weekly scheduled ones, through the icon offered on your cPanel. We will not backup emails, and recommend you configure IMAP or POP to store backups of your emails locally. To restore your site from a backup, we charge a one-time service fee of $19.95, half its regular price.

RESOURCE USAGE

All hosting accounts will have a set initial quota for hosting space and bandwidth. These quotas are large enough that over 95% of customers will never reach them. In the event that you are currently using over 90% of your current hosting space or bandwidth quotas, simply contact our support team and more resources will be allocated to your hosting account free of charge, as long as it is in compliance with our terms of service. This includes not using your hosting space to store excessive amounts of old emails.

Our servers are optimized for website operation. Your hosting account is not intended for file storage or sharing. If you are using more than 15% of your space for something other than the normal operation of your website, such as multimedia storage, email storage, or backups, then you will not receive an increase. We recommend removing the excess media, emails, or backups from our servers, either by deleting them or downloading and storing them locally, which will clear up a significant amount of space.

Our servers are not intended for heavy video, music, or other multimedia storage/streaming. All hosting accounts have a limit of 2GB allocated for multimedia storage, including movie/video files, music files, and image files. If your multimedia storage exceeds 2GB, you will not be eligible for an increase.

Our services are not designed to be resold. Any account in violation of our reseller policy will be immediately suspended or terminated. No refunds will be issued for accounts in violation of our reseller policy.

HostMetro accounts are limited to 200,000 inodes (individual files.) In the event your account is using over 200,000 inodes, you may be warned about the account usage, and if no action is taken, your account may be suspended.

Your account may not use 10% or more of our system resources (CPU memory) for longer than 90 seconds. If your account exceeds this amount, the process may be killed and your account may be suspended without notice. Activities that may cause these issues include large FTP queues, PHP scripts, CTI scripts, and other similar actions.

No refunds will be given to accounts suspended due to resource usage. We will be happy to work with you to ensure your account and site run effectively on our servers so that you may continue using our services, but we do not provide refunds for accounts that exceed our resource limitations.

SPAMMING

HostMetro has a zero-tolerance spam policy. Any account found to be sending unsolicited email, bulk email, or any other form of spam, will be suspended or terminated without notice. Purchasing, using, or selling email lists is considered spamming.

We reserve the right to disable any website, database, files, or account feature that does not comply with our spam policy without notice. In the event that one of our servers is blacklisted due to a hosting account sending spam, any charges for blacklist removal will be charged to the owner of the offending account.

UPTIME GUARANTEE

HostMetro guarantees a 99% network and server uptime. This is calculated over any given 12 month period. The uptime of the server is reported by Nagios Server Monitoring, which calculates the uptime of the operating system and Apache web server. This guarantee does not include areas in which HostMetro has no direct influence, including backbone provider, hardware failures, DNS issues, DDoS attacks, connection issues between clients and our servers, extreme weather events, natural disasters, the robot uprising, etc. In the event that we do not meet the 99% uptime guarantee, 1 additional month of hosting will be credited toward an affected account upon your request to support@hostmetro.com, with justification.

FREE BASIC SITE TRANSFER

Every account comes with a free basic site transfer. We will make every effort to transfer the site successfully from your previous host to our servers. Due to the possibility of other hosting companies configuring their servers differently than HostMetro, we cannot guarantee that any or all data will be transferred successfully. The site is transferred “as is”, so anything that was previously broken will still be broken, and we cannot guarantee that the content will function the same way after transfer.

The basic transfer included with your account is limited to the following:

You must redeem the transfer within 30 days of account creation.
The account size cannot exceed 3GB.
The website must currently be hosted on a cPanel/WHM server.
The previous account must be active so that we can gain access to it.
The previous account must remain active for the duration of the transfer.
You must give HostMetro temporary FTP and/or cPanel access to your old account.
Multiple external accounts cannot be consolidated into a single HostMetro account. If you have multiple accounts and want to transfer them to a single HostMetro account, each account will be considered a premium transfer and will be billed accordingly.

If these conditions are not met, then you will require a premium site transfer, the details of which are listed below.

PREMIUM SITE TRANSFER

The premium site transfer is for accounts that do not fall within the scope of the basic transfer guidelines. These transfers require more time and resources to move, so we charge a one-time fee of $29.95. We cannot guarantee that any or all files, databases, email addresses, etc., will work the same way as they did before, due to differing server configurations between hosts, especially hosts that do not use cPanel.

In the event that you require a premium site transfer, we will confirm the transfer as well as the $29.95 fee with you before taking any action. This fee is non-refundable and cannot be reversed in the event that the transfer is not completed successfully.

DOMAIN REGISTRATION

HostMetro does not have sole control over domain name registration, and must comply with ICANN policy. You must also comply with ICANN policy. Everyone must comply with ICANN policy. This policy can be located on ICANN’s website, and may change with full effect at any time, without notification.

To successfully register a domain name, you must provide accurate contact and billing information and pay all charges associated with the registration before the domain is registered. HostMetro, because of ICANN policy, cannot register duplicate domains or submit multiple registrations for you.

All domain registration and renewal charges are non-refundable upon the moment of purchase. You will not be refunded for typos, bad spelling, changing your mind, account suspensions, account terminations, or account transfers. The domain is already registered for the full term at which you purchased it.

Certain domains may be unavailable, duplicate, premium, TLD requirements, etc., and in such cases HostMetro will not be able to register the domain with the registrar. If no domain has been registered but you have paid a domain registration fee already, you will be refunded at HostMetro’s discretion.

DOMAIN RENEWAL

Domains will automatically renew for the same amount of time at which they were purchased so that you do not lose your rights to the domain. If you do not wish to renew a domain, you must submit a domain cancellation request.

You must pay the domain renewal fees on or before their due date. Failing to do so will result in you losing all rights to the domain, or the domain being locked for a period of time at ICANN’s discretion. You are responsible for ensuring your domain is renewed successfully, and agree that failing to do so in any way for any reason may result in losing the domain name. Renewal notices are a courtesy only, and are not indicative that HostMetro is responsible for your domain renewal, or will take responsibility of any costs or actions required in the renewal.

If your domain is not renewed, it will enter a redemption period, during which time it is in holding. It costs $150 to recover the domain from redemption, which you must pay if you wish to reclaim the domain. This price is decided solely by the registrar, not HostMetro. We do not determine this price, nor can we change or waive this price, nor will we cover the cost of this service for you.

DOMAIN EXPIRATION

If you wish to disable automatic renewal for your domain, you must do so yourself from your client area by navigating to Domains > My Domains and checking the box next to the domain you do not want to renew. Below, navigate to With Selected > Auto Renewal Status. You may disable or enable automatic renewal for the selected domain here. The domain will not renew at the end of the term, you will not be billed, you relinquish all control of the domain, and the domain will enter redemption. The registrar may then resell this domain to another party at its discretion.

HostMetro reserves the right to cancel or suspend your domain if it has expired, you are in violation of these terms, you are in violation of ICANN policy, the domain is copyrighted by someone else, or we receive a subpoena telling us to cancel your domain.

Expired domains are subject to WhoIs directory listing with HostMetro’s information, regardless of whether or not the domain used to have domain privacy.

In the event your account or domain are suspended or terminated, HostMetro reserves the right to redirect that site to a page determined by HostMetro which may display HostMetro logos, content, or promotional material.

DOMAIN TRANSFER

ICANN requires that all domain names being transferred must extend their registration for one year. You are responsible for paying the associated fees. Once you successfully transfer to HostMetro, you remain the registrant of the domain through the end of the extended term.

You can manage your domain name in the HostMetro client area, under Domains > My Domains.

Domain names can fail to transfer to HostMetro. HostMetro is not liable for any interruption of service due to a transfer failure, including a domain’s failure to renew. Reasons why a domain transfer may fail include:

The domain is expired.
The domain is locked.
The original registration happened less than 60 days prior to the transfer request.
The current registrar rejected the transfer.
The WhoIs Administrative Contact never responded to the transfer verification email.

Each domain registrar has their own transfer rules. If you want to transfer a domain from us to another registrar, you must contact the gaining registrar for their exact steps. HostMetro is not responsible for a transfer failure to another registrar, nor any interruption of service or damages that occur as a result. It is your responsibility to correctly and completely follow the steps for transferring a domain.

HostMetro cannot release a domain if any of the following conditions are met:

The domain is expired.
The domain is within 7 days of expiration.
The domain was registered less than 60 days ago.
The domain was renewed less than 60 days ago.

You are responsible for updating your domain’s registrar or disabling domain privacy 60 days before your domain expires.

Due to ICANN policy, changing the email address on file with the registrar will lock the domain for 60 days. Following this 60-day period, the domain will be unlocked and eligible for transfer, at which point we will be able to release the EPP/authorization code and complete the transfer.

If you need to change your email address on file with the registrar to regain access to your account, we are not responsible for the 60-day lock on the domain, the expiration of the domain during that period, or any redemption status of the domain that follows.

HostMetro’s DNS department is only available Monday through Friday, during regular business hours (Central Standard Time.) Any and all requests, including EPP code requests, received by us outside of these hours will be placed in queue until the DNS department’s regular hours of operation.

DOMAIN PRIVACY

All domain names and associated contact information are subject to be listed in the public WhoIs database, unless you purchase domain privacy.

When you purchase domain privacy, HostMetro will submit a request to replace your contact information with its own in the WhoIs database, and receive in your place any emails or contacts sent via information acquired from the WhoIs database. We will forward any important or relevant information to you as we see fit. You are still required to provide accurate and legitimate contact and billing information on the domain registration, which is kept private.

Transferring the domain to another registrar automatically will cancel out the domain privacy, and you will not receive a refund for all or part of the domain privacy term you purchased. Failing to renew your domain privacy will automatically cancel out its effects, and your contact information will be re-submitted into the public WhoIs database.

HostMetro is sometimes required to reveal your contact information protected under domain privacy in these circumstances:

We receive a subpoena or are contacted by law enforcement.
We must comply with ICANN policy.
You are in violation of these terms, ICANN policy, or other applicable terms and conditions.
You are abusing the system.
To avoid legal or financial harm to HostMetro.
To avoid or resolve a dispute.

PREMIUM DOMAINS

HostMetro is a reseller of domain names.

Our registrar may designate certain domains as “Premium Domain Names.” Premium domains may be unavailable to register, despite showing as available in all public searches and our system. Premium domains may also cost significantly more than the listed price, and may not register as costing more when the invoice to us is placed, resulting in an incorrect price. We have no control over this error in pricing or which domains are considered premium by our registrar.

If the domain you are trying to register is found to be premium but still available to register, our registrar will inform us only upon attempted registration of the domain. We will then notify you of the domain’s status and new price. You have two options:

Proceed with registering the premium domain, and HostMetro will invoice you for the correct price.
Do not register the premium domain, and HostMetro will fully refund the invoice for registration request you placed. You may choose to register a different domain following this procedure, at its usual price.

If your domain is designated as premium and unavailable to be registered, there is nothing we can do, and you will be refunded the registration fee and must choose a different domain.

COUNTRY-CODE & SPONSORED DOMAINS

HostMetro offers numerous TLDs (also known as domain extensions) for you to register, but some of these TLDs come with restrictions set forth by ICANN.

Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) are two-letter TLDs restricted to a certain country, so your WhoIs contact information must contain an address located within that country. For example, you must have an address in Germany to register a .de domain.

Sponsored TLDs may be restricted to certain types of businesses or services, so your website must reflect that. For example, you must be an institutionally accredited U.S. university or college to register an .edu domain, and you must be a verified airline, travel agency, or travel reseller to use .fly as your TLD.

PRIVACY POLICY

We are committed to protecting all data that is collected in regard to you and all our clients. When you use our services, you agree to the use of that data in accordance with our privacy policy, as follows.

We never collect data from visitors to our site unless they explicitly choose to provide that information.

All information collected upon sign-up is only done so from SSL-secured pages (https) and will be securely stored in our billing system. This can include:

Your first and last name.
Your address.
Your phone number.
Your email address.
Dates and types of services purchased.
Your payment method.
Your credit card information. Paypal account, etc.

Your financial information will only be used to charge for services you explicitly purchase from HostMetro. Your financial information can be viewed and modified at any time, by you only, in your client area. You may log into your client area by clicking here or by clicking "Login" at the top of the page. All your information is stored on a secure server and additional security measures are in place to aid in preventing the loss or alteration of your information.

We cooperate with all government and law enforcement agencies. Account information will be disclosed upon valid request by government or law enforcement officials to comply with the law.

We do not sell your information to advertisers, corporations, or anyone. Your information will be used for internal purposes only, for our services or third-party services you explicitly purchase through us.

Contact information provided during domain registration, such as your email address or name, may be released to the public WhoIs database in compliance with ICANN policy. To prevent your information from being released via WhoIs, you will need to purchase and maintain domain privacy.

We do not control data collection by social media or other third-party sites we may link to from our own website or client area. Click at your own risk.

SEO TOOLS

HostMetro agrees to provide you with SEO tools as described on the relevant SEO pages. SEO tools are intended to provide you with an increased chance of better positioning on search engines. These tools include:

Keyword research to select appropriate, relevant search results
Search engine submission to Google, Yahoo, and Bing
Consultation explaining where you can better your website in an effort to increase search engine ranking.

HostMetro has no control over search engine policies and cannot guarantee that any SEO tool provided will result in a higher rating on a search engine, more hits to your website, or even that your search engine submission will be accepted.

Search engines can take months to update website listings. We are not responsible if a search engine is slow in adding your website. We are not responsible for the rank they give your website. We are not responsible for their refusal to list your website at all. We are not Google. We cannot get your website listed on a site we do not own. Take it up with Google.

RESOLD SERVICES

HostMetro resells certain services or products from third-party vendors. We have no control over these vendors or the services and products they sell, and cannot influence their decisions or processes. A vendor may decide to do any of the following, at their sole discretion:

Withhold or deny a service or product.
Delay a service or product for any period of time.
Change their policies or procedures without notification.
Change the price of a service or product.
Require additional information or action before releasing a service or product.

THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE

HostMetro is not responsible for third-party software that stops working, does not work in our network environment, does not work as expected, does not work at all, or does something you do not want it to do. You are solely responsible for installing, configuring, maintaining, and securing any and all third party software you use in HostMetro’s network environment. HostMetro will occasionally provide support for some third party software, but does so out of courtesy, and only for simple issues. Contact the appropriate third party for detailed and specific support for their software.

MODIFICATIONS

HostMetro reserves the right to add, alter, remove, or modify any of its plans, pricing, features, policy, or other services at any time without notification. Modifications are effective immediately at the time of the change for all HostMetro clients, users, partners, or affiliates. In the event HostMetro modifies the price and/or rate of a hosting plan, as per the Price Lock Guarantee, the updated price applies only to new purchases or sign-ups. Price increases do not affect the rates for current client hosting plans for as long as the Price Lock Guarantee remains in effect.

DISCLAIMER

All services provided by HostMetro are provided to the customer "as is" with no warranty or condition of any kind, either expressed or implied. HostMetro makes no representations or warranties that the services will (a) meet your requirements, or (b) the services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free. HostMetro will not be held liable for any damages or losses a customer's business may suffer. HostMetro is not responsible for any reimbursement for losses of income due to disruption of services.

INDEMNIFICATION

HostMetro customers agree to protect, defend, hold harmless, and indemnify HostMetro, any third party entity related to HostMetro (including, without limitation, third party vendors), and HostMetro executives, directors, officers, attorneys, managers, employees, consultants, contractors, agents, parent companies, subsidiaries, and affiliates, from and against any and all liabilities, losses, costs, judgments, damages, claims, or causes of actions, including, without limitation, any and all legal fees and expenses, arising out of or resulting in any from the customer's use of HostMetro services.

GOVERNING LAW AND SEVERABILITY

The Terms of Service, and any other agreement for HostMetro services, will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, USA without reference to its conflicts of laws principles. Any litigation or arbitration between a customer and HostMetro will take place in Illinois, and the customer will consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in that jurisdiction. If any provision or portion of the Terms of Service or any other HostMetro agreement is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable for any reason, the remainder of the Terms of Service or the agreement will continue in full force and effect.

THESE TERMS MAY CHANGE

We reserve the right to revise or change any portion of the terms at any time without advanced notice. Any changes will be effective upon posting the revisions to this website. The most current version of our terms will always be located on this page. Your continued use of our hosting following the posting of any changes will constitute your acceptance of said changes. If you do not agree to the changes made to the terms, please immediately terminate your account.

Last Updated: December 14, 2022

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