Acceptable use policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) defines the terms under which customers (“Customer”) engage with HostUp AB, corporate number 559290-1325 (“HostUp”), regarding the subscription service (“Service”) provided by HostUp. Non-compliance with this policy may result in limitation of resources or suspension of services.

If you ordered a service within the last 24 hours and we discover you are violating any of the rules mentioned below, we will suspend and refund you immediately, allowing you to retrieve important data later.

If your service has been active for more than 24 hours, we will typically give you ample warning so that you can address the issue without service interruption. This does not apply to intentional activities, such as those related to crypto/blockchain, or in cases where we confirm that your virtual machine has been “hacked” and is carrying out attacks or other intentional malicious activities on a large scale. In those cases, we will suspend your service immediately to protect our platform.

Prohibited activities on our platform

Crypto/blockchain activities: Engaging in mining, staking, validation, or other blockchain-related activities that cause abnormal server load is prohibited.

VPS resource usage (disk DWPD):

We strive to maintain optimal performance and longevity for our storage infrastructure, so that most customers enjoy high speed and reliability. We therefore enforce a 1 DWPD (Disk Writes Per Day) limit. This is sufficient for 99% of all users and helps protect our systems from excessive wear and tear.

If you frequently hit this limit (e.g., large log files, crypto, or extremely disk-intensive workloads), our automatic limiter will reduce write speeds. This does not suspend your VPS, but your system may slow down until you fall under the threshold again.

How it works:

• Generous write cap: If your VPS is allocated 200 GB of storage, you can write up to 200 GB of data per day (about 1,400 GB per week at peak speeds).
• Data redundancy: Your data is mirrored across three servers, so although the total capacity is 3 DWPD, your effective usage is 1 DWPD.

Burst and throttle mechanism:

• Burst writing: You can write at maximum speed until your monthly limit is reached. Once exceeded, write speeds are throttled by a “leaky bucket” algorithm. You remain online but may experience slowed performance.

Specific limits for each VPS plan:

Refer to the table below for read/write limits for each VPS plan.

VPS plan	VPS storage capacity	Write bucket size	Read bucket size	Write bucket draining speed (1 DWPD)	Read bucket draining speed (1 DWPD)
VPS XS	50 GB	150 GB	150 GB	0.593 MB/s — 50 GB/day	0.593 MB/s — 50 GB/day
VPS SM	100 GB	300 GB	300 GB	1.187 MB/s — 100 GB/day	1.187 MB/s — 100 GB/day
VPS MED	200 GB	600 GB	600 GB	2.374 MB/s — 200 GB/day	2.374 MB/s — 200 GB/day
VPS LG	400 GB	1200 GB	1200 GB	4.749 MB/s — 400 GB/day	4.749 MB/s — 400 GB/day
VPS XL	800 GB	2400 GB	2400 GB	9.498 MB/s — 800 GB/day	9.498 MB/s — 800 GB/day
VPS XXL	1600 GB	4800 GB	4800 GB	18.996 MB/s — 1600 GB/day	18.996 MB/s — 1600 GB/day

Notes on usage:

• Normal usage: These DWPD limits suffice for most typical scenarios. Reaching them is rare and usually indicates heavy disk-intensive workloads or blockchain-related tasks.
• Read limit: We also enforce a high read limit to prevent abuse. Under normal usage, this limit is rarely reached.

VPS resource usage (CPU): While RAM and storage are dedicated, CPU is under a fair-usage policy. Brief spikes to 100% are fine, but not continuously 24/7. If your service blasts 100% CPU for days or weeks, we’ll automatically limit you to ~50%—the typical dedicated share—to ensure fair use. You remain online, but performance may decrease until you address the issue.

VPS resource usage (bandwidth): Each plan has a defined bandwidth limit. If you reach your limit, your VPS will be throttled to 10 Mbps, giving you time to buy more bandwidth or upgrade. If you exceed your allocation by 200% or more, your VPS will be suspended until you purchase more bandwidth or upgrade.

Using VPS to send mass mail: On our VPS platforms, all outgoing mail is relayed through Mailchannels for spam filtering and delivery assurance. You must not exceed 10,000 emails per month.

Sending mail without using relay: By default, we require you to use our mail relay service. This means you cannot send mail directly to recipients unless it’s relayed through us. This is to filter out spam and comply with email regulations. If you wish to send mail directly from your VPS, we can allow this after reviewing your account. Contact us so we can remove the block! Note that Port 25 outgoing is blocked by default to protect the IP reputation of legitimate senders on the same subnet. This means you won't be able to send mail without using the relay or asking us to remove the block.

Having a weak root password: We set a relatively strong default root password. If you change it, you must ensure it remains strong. In cases of weak passwords, brute force attacks are almost guaranteed to succeed, allowing attackers to use your VPS for malicious activity against other networks.

Generic / common sense prohibited activities on our platform

Support volume: Access to support is fair-use. This means that the number of support cases you are allowed to open cannot drastically exceed the average.

Support area: We are happy to help you fix problems if possible, but we cannot help with things that are outside our support area. If the problem is not related to our services (e.g. a problem with a wordpress plugin) we cannot help with the problem. However, we can refer you to 3rd party support for a fee if it is not possible to contact the developer directly.

Ordering process: Please disable your VPN or proxy before placing your first order so your account can be reviewed properly. Once your account is approved, you may place future orders with a VPN enabled.

Illegal activities: The Service may not be used for illegal contests, lotteries, gambling, pyramid schemes, chain letters, unsolicited bulk email (spam), or any duplicative or unsolicited messages, whether commercial or otherwise.

Harassment and abuse: Users must not defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal rights of others (including privacy and publicity rights).

Objectionable content: Publishing, posting, uploading, or otherwise disseminating defamatory, obscene, or unlawful material is prohibited.

Intellectual property violations: Users must not upload, post, or otherwise make available any material that infringes on others’ intellectual property rights (e.g., copyright, trademark) without proper authorization.

Malicious software: Uploading files containing viruses, Trojan horses, worms, or other malicious programs that could harm another’s property is strictly prohibited.

Service interference: Users must not disrupt other users’ access to the Service, including methods like overloading, flooding, spamming, mail bombing, or crashing the Service.

Privacy violations: Users must not harvest or otherwise collect information about others (e.g., email addresses) without their consent.

Legal compliance: All activities conducted through the Service must comply with applicable laws, rules, and regulations.

Fraudulent conduct: Creating a false identity or otherwise misleading others is prohibited.

Network integrity: Unauthorized access, network probing, or port scanning is prohibited unless you have explicit authorization from the owner of the network or host.

Unauthorized usage: HostUp customers may not deploy services to facilitate or offer DOS/DDOS mitigation as a service.

TOR / public VPN or proxy: The Service may not be used as an exit node for TOR or by VPN providers that give access to users outside the end-user or their organization. This protects our IP reputation and helps prevent scenarios where, for example, Google forces reCAPTCHA for everyone due to an abusive user.

Resource limiting and violation handling

In most cases, we will not immediately suspend or terminate a VPS if we detect issues. Instead, we do the following:

• Initial warning or resource limit: We send you an email or open a support ticket explaining the problem. For high CPU usage (100% for days/weeks), we apply a 50% CPU limit until you fix it. If you reach your disk write limit, our system automatically throttles disk performance without taking you offline.
• 72-hour acknowledgment window: Once notified, you have up to 72 hours to confirm you’re aware of the issue and plan to address it. If you don’t reply or take corrective action within that time, we may proceed with further limitation or suspension.
• Severe abuse cases: Immediate suspensions can occur for proven illegal activity, hacking, spam campaigns, or other malicious activities that threaten our platform or other networks.

Reporting abuse

If you suspect another user of malicious or prohibited behavior, please send full details to [email protected]. We investigate every report, but we may not always respond directly. We only suspend or terminate services when we confirm the abuse or receive a valid court order.

For any other questions or uncertainties about what’s allowed, feel free to open a support ticket.

Last updated: 29/12/2024