..and get your account cancelled
Just because you’re paying a monthly fee for web hosting does not mean that your hosting account cannot be taken away from you. As with all other things in life, there are a set of rules you must follow when hosting a website. Let’s take a look at the top five ways you can end up with a terminated hosting plan and no place to call home.
1. Hosting illegal content
You are bound the laws of the country in which your website is hosted. That means that if it’s illegal to own and operate a gambling business in Turkey, you also can not run a gambling website on a Turkish web hosting server. Music, images and videos that are copyrighted are also considered illegal. To get a complete look at what you can and cannot host with your company, view your host’s Service Level Agreement and Terms of Service contract.
2. Spam
Unsoliced mail, otherwise known as spam, is frowned upon by all web hosting companies. Not only does the bulk mailing of unwanted email weigh down a web hosting server, but it also results in your hosting company needing to clean up after the mess you’ve created. It is also illegal and will most certainly lead to account suspension and the blacklisting of your domain name.
3. Tying up server resources
An intensive script or application can hog a server’s resources, stealing all available power and memory from other websites sharing the same server. When that happens, other websites slow to crawl and your host is left to figure out the problem and correct it. Poorly written scripts, excessive traffic, videos and download files can all cause server resources to become compromised. When this happens, your web host will very likely suspend your account until you remove the offending script or file or request that you move on to a virtual private server or dedicated server.
4. Hate speech
BlueHost.net recently pulled a controversial website due to concerns from others over hate speech violations. And they’re not the first host to make such a decision. You are promised freedom of speech in most countries around the world but that does not mean that a privately owned company must tolerate your beliefs or host your website. In the case of BlueHost, they simply did not have the time to address the hundreds of email complaints they were receiving daily about the offending website, so they pulled the plug.
5. Violating the Terms of Service
When you sign up for a web hosting account, you sign a Terms of Service contract or Service Level Agreement. Both legal documents outline what you can and cannot do with your web hosting account. Any violation of these contracts can result in the immediate suspension of your account.
It is your responsibility to understand what you can and cannot do with your hosting account. Once your account has been suspended, your hosting company is under no obligation to reinstate your account, refund your hosting fees or help you retrieve your lost files.