Ahead Host LLC — Master Terms of Service & Product‑Specific Terms

Last updated: October 16, 2025
Entity: Ahead Host LLC (a Connecticut limited liability company)
Governing law & venue: State of Connecticut, USA. Exclusive venue in the state courts of Hartford County, Connecticut and the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

These Terms govern all services listed on the following pages: /shared/, /reseller/, /nl-web-hosting/, /vps/ (Canada/US/France/Netherlands/Australia — Linux & Windows), /dedicated/, /ssl-certificates/, /domain-registration/, and /fix-hacked-website/. By ordering, paying for, or using our services, you accept these Terms.

Plain‑English note: This document is business policy, not legal advice. You may wish to have your counsel review jurisdiction/consumer‑law specifics.

1) Key Definitions (Simple)

• Shared Hosting: Multi‑tenant web hosting (typically cPanel) with fair‑use resource limits.

• Reseller Hosting: You create/manage client cPanels under your own brand (white‑label).

• NL Web Hosting: Shared service hosted primarily in the Netherlands.

• VPS: Virtual private server with dedicated vCPU/RAM/disk allocations (Linux or Windows).

• Dedicated Server: Single‑tenant physical server.

• Managed vs. Unmanaged: Managed = we maintain everything. Unmanaged = you administer everything.

• Abuse: Spam, malware, attacks, illegal content, or any activity that breaches §5.

• Courtesy Backups: Non‑guaranteed backups we attempt to take; you must keep your own off‑site backups.

• Service Credit: Non‑cash billing credit issued under the SLA in §7 when eligible.

2) Orders, Verification & Provisioning

• We may request ID or other verification to prevent fraud/abuse. If verification fails or risk is high, we wont deliver service until verification is done.

• Provisioning times are estimates. Licenses, additional IPs, custom images, or migrations can add lead time.

3) Billing, Renewals, Late Payment & Data Deletion

• Prepaid: All services are prepaid per term (monthly/annual unless stated otherwise). Auto‑renew is on by default; you can disable it any time before renewal.

• Grace → Suspension → Deletion

  • Shared/Reseller/NL Web: 3‑day grace after due date → suspension. Data may be deleted after 15 days unpaid.

  • VPS/Dedicated: 1‑day grace → suspension. Data may be deleted after 7 days unpaid due to higher resource cost.

• Chargebacks/Disputes: Open a ticket before initiating a chargeback. Unresolved chargebacks may be treated as breach; reasonable processing/collection fees may apply.

• Taxes: You are responsible for all applicable taxes, duties, and regulatory fees unless we collect them at checkout.

4) Refund Policy (Clear & Strict)

• 7‑Day Money‑Back on Shared/Reseller/NL Web hosting only, and only for the first purchase per product line. Excludes renewals, add‑ons, and overages.

• No refunds on: VPS, Dedicated Servers, domain registrations/transfers/renewals, SSL certificates once issued, third‑party licenses (e.g., Windows, cPanel), migrations, custom work, or malware‑cleanup once work has begun.

• Accounts terminated for cause (e.g., AUP violations) forfeit any refund/credit.

5) Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Zero tolerance for: phishing, malware, DDoS/booter services, port‑scanning/bruteforce, botnets, child sexual abuse material, illegal pharmacies, trafficking, stolen data/CC dumps, violent/terror content, or activity illegal in the server’s jurisdiction.

Email/Anti‑Spam

• No purchased, rented, or scraped mailing lists.

• Shared/Reseller default cap: (plan‑dependent). We may rate‑limit or lower caps in response to abuse or deliverability issues.

• No mass‑mailer apps or open relays (e.g., SendBlaster/MailBomber).

• If your service or IPs are listed on major RBLs/blacklists (e.g., Spamhaus), we may suspend outbound mail or the service. Remediation time/cost is your responsibility; delisting decisions are outside our control.

Resource/Usage Restrictions

• Shared/Reseller/NL Web: No long‑running daemons, audio/video transcoding, torrents/seedboxes, public proxy/VPN nodes, bulk image/video hosting platforms, public file mirrors, or backup‑only usage.

• VPS/Dedicated: Public VPN/proxy networks, traffic‑tunneling farms, crypto‑mining, and mass‑mail infrastructures are prohibited unless explicitly approved in writing.

Security

• You must keep software updated, use strong passwords and 2FA, and promptly remove vulnerable plugins/themes. We may quarantine or disable insecure software to protect the platform.

6) Backups & Data Protection

• Shared/Reseller/NL Web (Courtesy Only): We aim for daily backups retained 7 days plus weekly backups retained 4 weeks (when capacity allows). Large cPanel may be excluded. Backups can fail or be skipped; they are not guaranteed.

• VPS/Dedicated: No backups unless you add a paid backup plan or snapshot service.

• Your Responsibility: Always maintain your own independent off‑site backups. We are not liable for data loss.

7) SLA — Uptime & Credits (Network/Power at Node/Datacenter)

• Target: 99.9% monthly uptime.

• Credits (apply to the affected service for that billing month):

  • 30–59 minutes unplanned outage → 5% credit

  • 1–2 hours → 10% credit

  • 2–4 hours → 20% credit

  • 4 hours → 30% credit (cap: 100% of that month’s fee)

• Exclusions: Scheduled maintenance (we will attempt to notify), emergency work to protect the platform, upstream/carrier failures outside our control, DDoS, force majeure, and customer‑caused incidents.

• How to claim: Open a ticket within 7 days of the incident with timestamps and traceroutes/logs where possible. Credits are billing credits (not cash) and cannot be stacked across months.

8) IP Addresses, Geolocation & Reputation

• IPv4/IPv6 are leased and must be returned when the service ends. Additional IPv4 requires technical justification and availability.

• Geolocation: We can attempt to publish geolocation preferences (e.g., geofeeds) but third‑party databases may take time to update and results are not guaranteed.

• RBL/Blacklist: We offer reasonable assistance, but delisting is at the operator’s discretion. If abuse continues, we may change IPs at your cost or suspend the service.

9) Software & Licensing

• Third‑Party Software: Where you request panels or add‑ons (e.g., cPanel, Plesk, LiteSpeed), you agree to their EULAs and billing terms.

10) Support Scope & Responsibilities

Unmanaged Services (default unless stated):

• We maintain: physical hardware, hypervisor, network, power, and storage platforms.

• You maintain: OS updates, firewall, services, web stack, databases, application code, and mail configuration.

Managed Services (if purchased/explicitly included):

• We handle: OS updates & security patches, firewall/baseline hardening, web stack (e.g., Apache/Nginx/LiteSpeed), PHP/LSAPI, MariaDB/MySQL service health, control panel services, and basic investigation of outages.

• Optional add‑ons by arrangement: monitoring with defined response windows, WAF rulesets, malware scans, optimization tasks, and scheduled admin hours.

Support Targets (non‑SLA):

• Ticket triage within 24 business hours; urgent platform incidents prioritized. Complex issues may require more time or paid admin hours.

11) Migrations

• Shared/Reseller: We offer a free best‑effort one‑time migration per account or per reseller environment (reasonable size/number). Complex or repeated migrations may be billed.

• VPS/Dedicated: We can assist on a paid basis. You must provide working backups, access credentials, and a test plan. Zero‑downtime cutovers are not guaranteed.

12) DDoS & Security Events

• Basic network‑level DDoS filtering may be present at certain sites. Large or targeted attacks can exceed mitigation capacity and may require null‑routing, rate‑limiting, or temporary suspension to protect the platform. Such actions do not trigger SLA credits.

13) Suspension, Termination & Data Handling

• We may suspend/terminate for AUP violations, non‑payment, fraud/risk, or legal orders. Severe abuse can be terminated without notice.

• Upon termination, we may retain limited data for legal/regulatory reasons. Service data may be permanently deleted after the timelines in §3.

14) Confidentiality, Privacy & Data Processing

• We handle your data as described in our Privacy Policy. Where we act as a processor (e.g., hosting client data), a Data Processing Addendum (DPA) is available on request to address GDPR/UK GDPR and similar laws.

• You are responsible for providing lawful instructions and appropriate notices/consents to your end‑users.

15) Export Controls & Sanctions

• You represent that you and your end‑users are not subject to U.S. sanctions and that you will not use the services in violation of U.S. export‑control laws.

16) Liability & Indemnification

• To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including lost profits, revenues, goodwill, or data.

• Our aggregate liability for any claim relating to a service is limited to the fees you paid for that service in the affected month.

• You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from third‑party claims arising from your (or your clients’) use of the services in breach of these Terms or applicable law.

17) Changes to Terms

• We may update these Terms from time to time. The latest version is posted on our website. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

Product‑Specific Terms

A) Shared Hosting (/shared/) & NL Web Hosting (/nl-web-hosting/)

• All Master Terms apply.

• Fair‑Use (typical signals): sustained 100% CPU utilization, excessive concurrent PHP workers, high MySQL queries per second, inode counts exceeding plan norms, or abusive disk I/O. We may throttle or suggest an upgrade.

• Email: default cap (plan‑dependent). SPF/DKIM/DMARC strongly recommended. Bulk/marketing campaigns are not permitted on shared infrastructure.

• NL Web Hosting: Primary data location is the Netherlands. Emergency failover may temporarily serve content from other regions to preserve availability.

B) Reseller Hosting (/reseller/)

• All Master Terms apply.

• You are responsible for the actions/content of your end‑clients. We may intervene or suspend child accounts for abuse.

• White‑Label: Private nameservers and control‑panel branding where supported.

• You must publish client Terms/AUP at least as strict as ours and enforce them.

C) VPS — Linux & Windows (All Country Pages)

(/vps/canada-linux|windows, /vps/us-linux|windows, /vps/france-linux|windows, /vps/netherlands-linux|windows, /vps/australia-linux|windows/)

• All Master Terms apply.

• Root/Administrator access provided. You manage your OS unless you purchase Management.

• Email: Running mail servers is high‑risk. Mass mailing is prohibited. We may block outbound SMTP by default; open upon request with justification.

• Network: Public bandwidth is shared unless your plan specifies a dedicated port or commit.

D) Dedicated Servers (/dedicated/)

• All Master Terms apply.

• Bare‑metal with exclusive CPU/RAM/disk. Remote/OOB access (e.g., IPMI/KVM) only when explicitly listed for your plan; otherwise, paid remote‑hands are available.

• Hardware Replacement: Best‑effort targets (typ. 24–48 business hours for standard parts); custom parts or rare SKUs can take longer due to supplier lead times.

• Email & RBLs: Same AUP restrictions; you are responsible for sending practices and IP reputation.

E) SSL Certificates (/ssl-certificates/)

• All Master Terms apply.

• We resell CA‑issued certificates. Validation (DV/OV/EV), issuance, re‑issuance, and revocation follow CA policies and the CA/Browser Forum Baseline Requirements.

• EV Indicators: Modern browsers no longer show a persistent “green bar.” Organization details are usually visible in certificate information dialogs.

• Refunds: Once issued, SSLs are generally non‑refundable. If not yet issued, we can usually cancel/refund within 7 days (subject to CA rules).

• Reissues: Allowed during validity per CA policy (e.g., key replacement, server move). Keep private keys secure.

F) Domains (/domain-registration/)

• All Master Terms apply.

• Registrations, transfers, and renewals are processed via accredited registrar partners. ICANN rules apply to gTLDs; registry rules apply to ccTLDs.

• Registrant Responsibilities: Keep WHOIS/Registrant data accurate; respond to registrar emails; keep payment details current for auto‑renew.

• Expiry & Redemption: After expiry, domains may enter grace and/or Redemption Grace Period with additional recovery fees set by registrar/registry. Recovery is not guaranteed once a domain is deleted or auctioned.

• Disputes: Trademark/abuse disputes may proceed under UDRP/URS or applicable policies.

G) Fix Hacked Website (/fix-hacked-website/)

• All Master Terms apply.

• One‑Time Cleanup (Scope): Malware removal (files + database), backdoor removal, .htaccess/cron cleanup, CMS/plugin/theme patching where feasible, password/API/key resets, blacklist checks, and a post‑cleanup report. If the codebase is severely damaged, we may request a restore point or clean reinstall.

• Cleanup + Hardening (Adds): WAF rules/rate‑limits, 2FA, least‑privilege roles, security headers (HSTS/CSP/etc.), and a short monitoring window (e.g., 30 days) with guidance.

• Exclusions: We do not rebuild custom themes/plugins, rewrite app logic, or guarantee search rankings or the speed of third‑party delisting. New vulnerabilities can appear; keep software updated.

Contact & Notices

• Primary channel: Support ticket in the client portal. We may also contact you via your account email for billing/abuse/security notices.

Order of Precedence

• If there is a conflict between the Master Terms and a Product‑Specific Term, the Product‑Specific Term controls for that product. Any signed order form or addendum controls over both.

Acknowledgment
By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms