I. Technical Support

Company provides You with technical support on setup of the Company server, access, basic web site development, and other server related issues free of charge. Company does not provide support for web applications, scripts, or components from third parties or developed by You.

Company's Technical Support Department operates 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, excluding bank holidays and is available by E-mail at support@visualnetcentre.com. There is no telephone technical support for shared web hosting. Please send us a message with the full description of the problem and your account username. Please do not send multiple messages on the same issue.

Company's standard response time to technical support issues is one hour. This time, however, depends on the complexity of the inquiry and workload in general. The Technical Support Department assigns the highest priority to customer inquiries related to the servers' unavailability. These issues are addressed immediately upon receiving e-mail notification from a customer. Please keep in mind that it may take some time to resolve the issue so You may not get an immediate reply.

One-hour e-mail support turnaround time guarantee does not apply to any development related or web site troubleshooting issues since such issues often involve extensive research and testing.

II. Billing and other account related inquiries

All inquiries regarding Company billing for its services should be sent to billing@visualnetcentre.com.

All inquiries regarding reselling Company's services, purchasing of new accounts, and available discounts should be addressed to sales@visualnetcentre.com.

III. Escalation

If You are dissatisfied with Company's Shared Web Hosting Service or if you are unable to resolve a technical support issue within the parameters outlined in this Service Level Agreement please contact Company's Customer Support Manager at darryn@visualnetcentre.com regarding your concerns. The Customer Support Manager will review your concerns, investigate, and respond to You within one business day. As issues may be complex or require extensive investigation, this one business day response time does not imply that a resolution is guaranteed within one business day.

IV. Visual Control Panel and server management

Company account holders are provided with Company's on-line account and server management tool - Visual Control Panel. This tool is designed to give You complete control over Your server services purchased from the Company. Visual NetCentre expects You to use the Visual Control Panel to perform all routine account and server management tasks.

The Visual Control Panel, server management documentation, and help is available on-line on Company's Support Site, http://www.visualnetcentre.com/members/, as well as within the Visual Control Panel itself. If you experience difficulty using the Visual Control Panel, Company's Technical Support personnel will help You learn to use this tool. However, Company's Technical Support shall not be expected to perform for You the tasks that can be done through the Visual Control Panel.

V. Servers Availability

Visual NetCentre is fully committed to providing quality service to all customers. To support this commitment, Visual NetCentre observes the following schedule of penalties for its failure to comply with this Service Level Agreement.

APPLICATION (WEB) SERVER AVAILABILITY

Company guarantees 99.9% monthly average scheduled availability of its Application (Web) Servers. Application (Web) Server availability is defined as your ability, via web browser, to retrieve the HTTP headers from a hosting server. Company does not monitor availability of individual web sites but only monitors the server availability as a whole.

Application (Web) Server Availability Monitoring

To verify that the server is available Company will ping HTTP service on the server by retrieving HTTP headers every 5 minutes with a 30-second threshold. If HTTP service does not respond, the server is considered non-operational and is automatically rebooted. If rebooting the server does not solve the problem, it is immediately escalated to the Support Center.

In cases where two or more consecutive HTTP tests fail, server downtime will be registered as the number of minutes between the first and the last failed tests. Downtime of less than 5 minutes in duration is not recorded. Company calculates server uptime based on this type of server monitoring.

MAIL SERVER AVAILABILITY

Company guarantees 99.9% monthly average scheduled availability of its Mail Servers. Mail Server availability is defined as client's ability to send (SMTP) and retrieve (POP3) e-mail via the particular mail server. Company does not monitor individual mail sites but only monitors the server as a whole. Mail server unavailability caused by denial of service attacks, mail bombing, and other flooding techniques is not included in uptime calculations.

Mail delivery protocol (SMTP) is a "store-and-forward" type of protocol that does not guarantee immediate delivery of e-mail messages. In the case the first delivery attempt is failed mail server re-attempt to deliver messages to the addressee according to a predefined schedule. In the case the messages cannot be delivered for a period of time exceeding 48 to 72 hours, the messages are returned to the sender.

Mail Server Availability Monitoring

To verify that the server is up we ping SMTP and POP services (retrieve SMTP and POP headers) every 5 minutes with a 30-second threshold. If either service does not respond, the service is considered non-operational and is automatically restarted. If two or more consecutive SMTP or POP tests fail, the problem is immediately escalated to the Support Center.

In cases where two or more consecutive SMTP or POP tests fail, server downtime will be registered as the number of minutes between the first and the last failed tests. Downtime of less than 5 minutes in duration is not recorded. Company calculates server uptime based on this type of server monitoring.

NETWORK AVAILABILITY

Network availability is defined as Company network's ability to pass incoming and outgoing TCP/IP traffic. Servers' unavailability caused by network unavailability is not included in server uptime if such network unavailability is caused by factors beyond the Company's control. Interruptions of service due to problems on the backbone or on the customer's portion of the network are beyond the Company's control. Interruptions of service caused by denial of service or similar attacks are beyond the Company's control and are not included in uptime calculations.

SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE

To guarantee optimal performance of the servers, Company will perform routine maintenance on the servers on a regular basis. Such maintenance often requires taking Company servers off-line. Company reserves one hour of server unavailability per month for maintenance purposes. This server unavailability is not included in server uptime calculations. The maintenance typically is performed during off-peak hours. Company provides You with advance notice of maintenance whenever possible.

VI. Server Storage Capacity

Each account is allotted storage capacity on Company servers according to the plan or options selected by You. This storage size can be increased through the Visual Control Panel for an additional charge up to the maximum amount allowed for each plan or service. The servers may stop accepting, processing, or delivering data when the purchased limit is reached thus causing server unavailability or data loss. Company shall not be held responsible for such unavailability or data losses.

VII. Ownership of Data

All data created by You and/or stored by You within Company's applications and servers are your property and is for your exclusive use unless access is permitted by You. Company shall allow access to such data by authorized Company personnel and shall provide access in compliance with Company's Privacy Policy ( http://www.visualnetcentre.com/legal/privacy_statement ). Company makes no claim of ownership of any web server content, e-mail content, or any other type of data contained within the account holder's server space and applications on Company's servers.

VIII. Data Integrity

Routine tape backups are performed for emergency recovery purposes only. COMPANY SHALL NOT RESTORE THE DATA UPON YOUR REQUEST. Web server raw log files are not included in the backups and cannot be recovered during server restoration.

IX. Data Retention

COMPANY SHALL NOT RETAIN ANY OF YOUR DATA AFTER ACCOUNT TERMINATION. ALL DATA IS DELETED FROM THE SERVERS AT THE TIME THE ACCOUNT IS TERMINATED AND FROM BACK-UPS DURING SCHEDULED BACK-UP ROTATION. COMPANY SHALL NOT RESTORE, "BURN" TO CD, OR SEND OUT ANY DATA PERTAINING TO EXISTING OR TERMINATED ACCOUNTS.

X. Customer Responsibilities

To access Visual NetCentre services customers must provide at the very minimum:

an Internet connection with sufficient bandwidth and quality to allow trouble-free browsing and data uploading and downloading;
a fully functional Internet browser;
a fully functional POP/SMTP e-mail program (client);
tools to develop and publish content as customer deems necessary;
tools to access database servers if such services are purchased by the customer.

XI. Privacy Statement

Visual NetCentre values the privacy of its customers. Please refer to Company's Privacy Policy for further information.