Is it common practice for hosting companies to inspect their user’s accounts for files that might only be there for storage purposes, ie, not having anything to do with their website? On two occasions I’ve been told that I needed to remove (very large) zip files which violated their Terms otherwise the host would delete them without further notice.
I ask because I received an interesting email (from someone I don’t know) who recently had a similar experience with the same host except in his case the host deleted several years worth of html and css website files. Needless to say he’s none too happy.
It seems to me that as long as the person doesn’t exceed their allotted storage limit what does it matter if the files are for a website or not?
I think it would depend a lot on the actual terms of use for that host. They may be worried about “warez” sites, and may be very carefully writing their TOS to restrict usage to a simple Web site. I have never heard of a host doing this, but I haven’t used anything except VPS accounts for several years now.
Walter
On Jan 21, 2014, at 3:00 PM, Todd wrote:
Is it common practice for hosting companies to inspect their user’s accounts for files that might only be there for storage purposes, ie, not having anything to do with their website? On two occasions I’ve been told that I needed to remove (very large) zip files which violated their Terms otherwise the host would delete them without further notice.
I ask because I received an interesting email (from someone I don’t know) who recently had a similar experience with the same host except in his case the host deleted several years worth of html and css website files. Needless to say he’s none too happy.
It seems to me that as long as the person doesn’t exceed their allotted storage limit what does it matter if the files are for a website or not?
Generally speaking standard shared hosting terms, storage would only include linked website files (files required for the site). If everyone took their full limit of files I’m pretty sure prices would change massively upwards.
I don’t know if they all say so explicitly (who ever reads all those T&Cs?) but hosting companies will usually oversell space and, as they rely on clients not using their full quota all of the time, won’t encourage its use as spare storage.
Roger Houghton
22 New King Street
Bath, Somerset, UK
---- On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:00:55 +0000 Todd<email@hidden> wrote ----
Is it common practice for hosting companies to inspect their user’s accounts for files that might only be there for storage purposes, ie, not having anything to do with their website? On two occasions I’ve been told that I needed to remove (very large) zip files which violated their Terms otherwise the host would delete them without further notice.
I ask because I received an interesting email (from someone I don’t know) who recently had a similar experience with the same host except in his case the host deleted several years worth of html and css website files. Needless to say he’s none too happy.
It seems to me that as long as the person doesn’t exceed their allotted storage limit what does it matter if the files are for a website or not?
I thinks it’s more about pricing, the terms pointing out exactly what you are buying in the agreement between the buyer and the seller.
Overselling space is a completely different issue where too many sites are on a shared server potentially causing performance problems.
David
On 21 Jan 2014, at 20:28, Roger Houghton email@hidden wrote:
hosting companies will usually oversell space and, as they rely on clients not using their full quota all of the time, won’t encourage its use as spare storage.