Acceptable use.

Purpose, Scope, and Acceptance

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) describes how RackHamsters services may and may not be used. RackHamsters is a hosting brand operated by Angry Hamsters Media, LLC (“RackHamsters,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). The AUP applies to dedicated servers, assigned IP addresses, network connectivity, customer accounts, and related services we provide.

The AUP supplements our Terms of Service and the specifications in your accepted order. By ordering or using the services, you agree to comply with this AUP and ensure that anyone using services through your account does the same. If a service-specific agreement expressly establishes stricter lawful-use restrictions, those restrictions also apply.

Your Server, Your Responsibility

You are responsible for the software, operating system, content, network traffic, accounts, and actions originating from your services, including activities of your users, customers, contractors, and anyone with access you authorize. Unauthorized third-party use, including compromises, must be reported and remediated promptly; a compromised server may still require immediate network containment. If you resell or share hosting, you must take reasonable steps to ensure downstream users comply with these rules.

Unmanaged dedicated servers place primary responsibility for operating-system security, software patching, applications, authentication, data protection, and responding to security notices on the customer, except where an accepted order expressly provides for management of a particular task.

Illegal Activities and Harmful Content

Services may not be used to facilitate, promote, distribute, store, or otherwise engage in conduct that violates applicable law, court orders, or the enforceable rights of others. This includes fraud, identity theft, child sexual abuse material, trafficking, unlawful threats, harassment, threats to people or property, unlawful defamation or invasion of privacy, fraudulent representations of products or services, and other unlawful exploitation or abuse. You must also comply with applicable United States export-control and sanctions laws when transferring software, technical data, or services.

We may restrict access to content or services in response to a credible report, lawful process, or an identified imminent risk. Allegations are evaluated in context; a third-party complaint by itself does not automatically establish wrongdoing.

Malware, Phishing, and Fraud

Do not create, distribute, host, operate, or knowingly support malware, ransomware, credential-stealing tools, phishing pages, fraudulent login portals, botnets, command-and-control systems, or infrastructure used for unauthorized access or financial deception.

Security analysis, malware research, or laboratory activity must be lawful, appropriately isolated, and not expose unrelated parties or public networks to malicious traffic. Ask us before deploying research workloads that could resemble active abuse or present elevated network risk.

Network Attacks and Unauthorized Access

Denial-of-service attacks, packet floods, exploitation of systems without permission, credential stuffing, service disruption, traffic amplification, and unauthorized penetration testing are prohibited, whether directed at another customer, an outside target, or RackHamsters infrastructure.

Do not scan or probe systems you do not own or have explicit authorization to test. Do not use assigned resources to relay, conceal, or amplify attacks against others. Legitimate testing of your own systems must not harm shared network services or third parties. Intercepting or monitoring another party’s data or traffic without authorization, forging TCP/IP headers, and distributing malicious or negligently infected files are also prohibited.

Email, Spam, and Messaging Abuse

Unsolicited bulk email, deceptive email, spam campaigns, abusive messaging, and maintaining services primarily intended to send spam are prohibited. You may not use purchased, harvested, or improperly obtained recipient lists, misleading sender identities, forged headers, or compromised mail accounts to distribute messages. This restriction also covers spam sent from outside our network that advertises, links to, promotes, or otherwise benefits a service hosted with RackHamsters, and knowingly providing tools or infrastructure principally designed to facilitate unsolicited bulk email.

If you operate legitimate mailing systems, use permission-based lists, appropriate unsubscribe mechanisms, responsible bounce handling, and applicable sender authentication and anti-spam practices. Repeated abuse complaints, excessive bounces, or blocklist events may trigger a request for remediation or temporary restrictions while investigated.

Open Relays, Proxies, and Exposed Services

Customers must reasonably secure email relays, DNS resolvers, proxies, VPN endpoints, remote-access tools, and other internet-facing services against unauthorized use. Relaying mail through any server without its operator’s authorization is prohibited. Services deliberately configured for abuse, traffic amplification, credential harvesting, or concealing unlawful activity are prohibited.

Publicly accessible services are not automatically prohibited merely because they are proxies, VPNs, DNS, or research tools. Their configuration and use must comply with law, this AUP, and the applicable service agreement.

IP Addresses, DNS, and Routing

IP addresses assigned with the service are provided for authorized use during the service term and do not become customer property. You may not announce or route unassigned address space, spoof source addresses, hijack routes, impersonate other organizations, or use address space in a way that materially harms network reputation or stability.

IP assignments, reverse DNS, additional IP requests, and any routing arrangements are subject to technical availability, justification where required, and the terms of the accepted order. We may change or reclaim assignments when reasonably necessary for network administration, with notice where practical.

Bandwidth, Port Speed, and Fair Network Use

Your order governs port speed, bandwidth allowance, metering, and any usage-related charges or restrictions. A physical port speed is not a promise of unlimited sustained transfer or any particular performance to all destinations.

Traffic patterns that materially degrade shared systems, threaten network operations, or violate an applicable connectivity agreement may be investigated and reasonably rate-limited, filtered, or otherwise contained. We will seek practical remediation where possible rather than treating every traffic spike as a violation.

DDoS Events and Emergency Protection

Attacks against hosted services can affect your server, other customers, transit connectivity, and network equipment. To contain a threat, we may filter traffic, rate-limit flows, null-route affected addresses, isolate equipment, or temporarily suspend connectivity when reasonably necessary.

Any DDoS mitigation described in a quote or service order is subject to that order’s limits and exclusions. No mitigation service is a promise that all attacks can be blocked without interruption.

Resource Misuse and Cryptomining

Lawful compute-intensive workloads, including virtualization, development, and computational processing, are not prohibited solely because they use substantial dedicated-server resources. They must remain within purchased resources and must not create unreasonable interference, security risks, or network harm.

Unauthorized cryptocurrency mining, compromised mining workloads, illegal processing, deliberate evasion of disclosed metering, and attempts to consume resources not assigned to your service are prohibited. We may request changes to workloads that create material operational harm.

Copyright, Intellectual Property, and Third-Party Rights

Do not use the services to knowingly infringe copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, or other enforceable intellectual-property rights. This includes distributing pirated software, unlicensed media, or unauthorized copies where prohibited by applicable law.

Rights holders may submit sufficiently detailed notices to [email protected]. We review qualifying reports and may take appropriate action, including disabling access where warranted by law or our policies. Repeat infringements may result in termination. See our Copyright & DMCA Policy for reporting instructions and our repeat-infringer policy.

Privacy, Data, and Access Controls

Customers must comply with privacy and data-protection laws applicable to the information they collect, host, or process. Do not collect personal information through unlawful surveillance, impersonation, unauthorized interception, or deceptive practices.

Maintain appropriate administrative controls and backups for sensitive content, use encryption where warranted, and limit privileged access. Customers running websites or applications for others are responsible for their own privacy notices and any required consent processes.

Resellers and Downstream Customers

If you resell, lease, or otherwise provide access to your RackHamsters services, you remain accountable for the resulting traffic, content, and abuse reports. You must maintain reachable abuse contacts and a workable way to identify and remediate offending downstream accounts.

Reselling does not excuse an AUP violation. We may coordinate with you on targeted remediation, but reserve the ability to act directly to contain an immediate security or network threat.

Abuse Notices and Investigations

Send reports to [email protected] with a description of the issue, affected IP address or URL, relevant timestamps with time zone, and available evidence such as message headers, log excerpts, or incident references. Please avoid sending unnecessary sensitive personal data in a report.

We may use technical records, provider notifications, and customer communications to evaluate a report, and may share the minimum relevant details with the affected customer to permit remediation. Knowingly false, abusive, or materially misleading reports may be disregarded.

Customer Response and Remediation

If we notify you of a suspected violation, respond promptly and take reasonable corrective action. Depending on the event, that may include removing harmful content, updating software, changing credentials, disabling an affected service, stopping abusive traffic, or providing relevant evidence that a report is incorrect.

The urgency and response window depend on the severity and immediacy of the risk. We do not promise a fixed remediation period for active attacks, serious compromise, unlawful activity, or threats to shared infrastructure.

Protective Measures, Suspension, and Termination

Where proportionate to the situation, RackHamsters may warn the customer, request a remediation plan, filter or block specific traffic, disable a feature or port, null-route an address, isolate a server, suspend a service, or terminate it as permitted by the Terms of Service.

We will seek notice and an opportunity to cure when reasonably practical. Immediate protective action may be necessary for urgent threats, serious illegal activity, or ongoing network disruption, including protective restrictions imposed by facilities, networks, or other operators involved in delivering the service. We cannot promise advance notice where such action is outside our immediate control. We may cooperate with lawful requests from authorities and other parties as required or permitted by law.

Reviewing or Disputing an Abuse Action

If you believe a report or restriction is mistaken, email [email protected] with the service identifier, the action taken, and supporting details. We will review the information and determine whether restrictions can be reduced or removed while protecting affected systems and third parties.

Restoration may require verification that the underlying issue is resolved. This process does not guarantee immediate reactivation, data recovery, or a refund; contractual billing and cancellation terms remain governed by the Terms of Service.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this AUP to address evolving threats, operational needs, provider requirements, or applicable law. Material changes will be posted with a revised effective date, and additional notice will be provided when required. Existing signed service terms remain subject to their own agreed conditions and applicable law.

Questions and Reporting

For questions about permitted workloads, security research, abuse reports, or policy enforcement, contact [email protected]. If you are unsure whether a planned use is appropriate, reach out before deploying it. We would rather discuss a legitimate project than discover a preventable incident.