Hosting Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction

  1. In addition to the General Terms, these terms and conditions govern the use of the KeyInfo domain registration and hosting services. By signing up with KeyInfo for the services a Client will be lawfully regarded as having agreed to their use of the services specified being governed by this Agreement.

2. Domain Registration

  1. KeyInfo registers domains on the Internet through the relevant governing bodies and hosts websites and related material on the KeyInfo server(s) on behalf of Clients. These terms and conditions apply to the use and registration of domain names and the web hosting services offered by KeyInfo.
  2.  KeyInfo is an approved registrar. KeyInfo may, at its discretion use other approved entities for registration, but in general, may limit domains offered based on availability from the registrar concerned.
  3. KeyInfo will not pay for registration if it is not combined with any of their hosting products.
  4. The Client will be bound by the terms and conditions of the relevant domain namespace (e.g. .com or .co.za) under which any domain name registered on its behalf falls, and should become familiar with them. KeyInfo may post links to these terms and conditions on the KeyInfo Website purely as a convenience to the Client.
  5. KeyInfo will strive to ensure that registration and subsequent DNS propagation is effected in the shortest period of time. However, KeyInfo cannot be held liable for any delays that may accompany the registration of domains. Initial Setup fees are non-refundable. Domain Name renewal fees are due annually by Keyinfo to ZACR subject to the clients’ account being paid-up and in good standing.

4. Domain Renewal

  1. KeyInfo will register a domain for a specified period (generally one year). The domain will remain in the client’s name and will be renewed yearly unless stated otherwise by the client
  2. Thereafter, the Client is solely KeyInfo will be responsible for ensuring that the domain is renewed at the end of that period, and subsequent periods, until the domain, is either canceled or transferred by the client. This includes domains that have been set to auto-renew. Should the auto-renewal process fail, the onus will be on the client to notify KeyInfo of the failure. Should a client’s account be in arrears by more than 3 months, the renewal will not take place
  3. KeyInfo will endeavor to send a courtesy reminder to the Client, such as an email, or phone call. Such reminders in no way transfer responsibility to KeyInfo for ensuring that the domain is renewed. Such reminders are only to inform the client that the domain is still registered with us
  4. Should this reminder fail to reach the Client, or should the reminder fail to be issued, this will not constitute a breach of this agreement, as this is solely performed as a courtesy.
  5. Clients registering domains must take note of the registration date, and ensure that renewal is effected.

5. Domain Transfer In

  1. KeyInfo will transfer existing (registered) domains from existing hosting providers to KeyInfo’s DNS and web servers free of charge. Upon requesting the transfer, and accepting the relevant Service Terms, the Client explicitly agrees that it has the authority to do so, being the registrant of the domain in question, or having been nominated as an agent of the registrant. The Client thereby indemnifies KeyInfo from any disputes regarding ownership of the domain and any claims as a result thereof. 

5.2 Domain Transfer Out

  1. Should a Client wish to transfer their domain away from KeyInfo, they will ensure that the account is up to date.
  2. It is the Client’s sole responsibility to ensure that the email and web data on the server are backed up and transferred BEFORE the domain transfer ticket is received.
  3. The Client will receive the transfer ticket for the domain as it is the clients who will be registered as the registrant.
  4. After the transfer out has been completed the hosting account will be set for termination/cancellation
  5. KeyInfo will not be liable for loss of data or be obliged to provide any such data once the hosting contract term has expired.

6. Cancellation

  1. Cancellation will be dealt with as per the General Terms.
  2. Cancellation, by the Client or KeyInfo, will result in any data being permanently removed from KeyInfo’s servers. Clients are solely responsible for ensuring that backups are made of web content and email data, or any other data stored on their hosting space. KeyInfo will not be liable for loss of data or be obliged to provide any such data once the hosting contract term has expired. Any backups made by KeyInfo will be made for legal purposes and not for data retention purposes and will not necessarily be made available to Clients on request.

7. Payment and Payment Terms

  1. Payment will be dealt with as per the General Terms.
  2. In the case of a website being suspended due to non-payment, the client agrees to settle all the arrears before the website is unsuspended. 

8. Liability for Registration and Use of Domain Names

  1. KeyInfo has not and does not conduct pre-registration searches in respect of the Client’s use and registration of its selected Domain Name/s and is therefore not obliged to either advise the Domain Name client about possible conflicting third party rights or to take steps to ensure against possible disputes concerning a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
  2. KeyInfo reserves the right to disclose pertinent information to Registrars for public disclosure as per the Terms and Conditions of the Registrar. KeyInfo will not be held liable for any claims of infringement of privacy by fulfilling such registration conditions.
  3. This forms a regulatory requirement by the registrar, and there a Service Agreement requirement to the Client.
  4. The Client indemnifies KeyInfo by warranting that the use or registration of the Domain Name by a Client does not interfere with nor infringe the rights of any third party in any jurisdiction with respect to trademark, service mark, tradename, company name, close corporation name, copyright nor any other intellectual property right and that Client has the right to use the Domain Name as requested.
  5. KeyInfo cannot act as an arbiter of disputes arising out of the registration and use of Domain Names. At the same time, Clients acknowledge that KeyInfo may be presented with evidence that a Domain Name registered by a Client violates the rights of a third party. In such instance KeyInfo shall be allowed to provide a complainant with the Client’s name and address and all further communication will exclude KeyInfo and KeyInfo will have no further obligations to the Client. In such an instance, the Client shall be entitled to continue using the Domain Name registered for the Client by KeyInfo until a court or other body with jurisdiction directs otherwise.

9. Registrant Contact Details for co.za and .com.

The ZACR policy indicates that the registrant contact details have to be updated to the legitimate beneficiary of the domain which would be the domain owner and not the reseller.

  1. The registrant, being the legitimate beneficiary of the domain name service, is accurately identified on the domain name record (full legal name); and
  2. The registrant’s designated email address is accurately identified on the domain name record where prescribed.

10. Hosting Services

  1. KeyInfo reserves the right to suggest suitable alternatives to the Client and / or charge for excessive traffic or system resources as it deems necessary, at its sole discretion. Excessive traffic or use of system resources will be determined as set out in the Acceptable Use Policy.
  2. KeyInfo reserves the right to move a website between web servers and Internet backbones, both within South Africa and internationally as it deems necessary. If a Client moves in excess of their monthly web traffic allocation, then the Client will be contacted and various options will be presented.
  3. KeyInfo reserves the right (but does not assume any obligation) to inspect the contents of data that the Client transmits, receives or stores on a KeyInfo Server to ensure compliance with this Agreement, KeyInfo’s AUP, or any applicable laws regulations or codes of practice.
  4. The Client must immediately and adequately respond to a denial of service attack (DOS / DDOS) or any sort of attack. If the Client’s facilities are targeted by a DOS attack or a hacker that affects other network users, the Client’s Service will be suspended.

12 Hosting Support

  1. KeyInfo will provide remote support for its Hosting Services and its Hosting Services only. This will include:
  2. The set up of email addresses on the server and the clients computer
  3. Troubleshooting of email and hosting related queries which are requested telephonically or via Email.
  4. This does not include:
  5. Local software issues eg. setting up printers, installing software like anti viruses, and similar requests.
  6. Should an IT technician be required, the client agrees to pay the call out fee and hourly rate of the IT technician.

13. Cloud Hosting

  1. KeyInfo reserves the right to manage the cloud environment at its discretion for the overall benefit of cloud hosted Clients. Any virtual machine which KeyInfo deems at its sole discretion to have a negative effect on the environment may be powered down or suspended.
  2. KeyInfo also strictly forbids any misuse of shared or cloud resources, such as Ram Disks (use RAM memory as storage disk space), which abuses resources and compromises the integrity of the cloud environment.
  3. KeyInfo may also, at its discretion, restrict server to limited IOPS (Input Output Operations Per Second) where a Client’s use of available virtual resources is negatively affecting the overall environment.

14. 99.9% Website Uptime Guarantee

  1. KeyInfo guarantees that its hosting services will attain 99.9% availability, subject to the following.
  2. The 99.9% website uptime guarantee is applicable only if the web server on which a Client’s  web hosting service resides crashes or goes down at an unscheduled time. This guarantee is not valid if there is any network problem between the Client and the web server which prevents the Client from seeing the web server, for instance. If the Client’s ISP’s link to the respective data centre goes down or is faulty, but the web server KeyInfo hosts is still up, KeyInfo is not responsible for the Client not being able to reach their website. This also counts for blacklisted networks
  3. KeyInfo is not responsible if any third party operated network or service experiences problems and outages (i.e. all network infrastructure and links, Client’s internet connection, firewall service managed by external parties). If the applicable web server is up and running at all times then the website will be deemed to have achieved 99.9% uptime.
  4. The 99.9% uptime guarantee does not apply to any scheduled downtime for maintenance of any of the KeyInfo web servers. If there is scheduled maintenance to be done the Client will be notified at least 24 hours in advance. The scheduled maintenance will always be done after hours (based on Central African Time (CAT)) and the web server downtime will be kept to a minimum.
  5. The 99.9% uptime guarantee does not apply if KeyInfo suspends the Client’s Service as allowed in terms of this Agreement.
  6. Third party monitoring service reports may not be used for justification due to a variety of factors including the monitor’s network capacity/transit availability. The uptime of the server is defined as the reported uptime from the operating system and the Apache Web Server which may differ from the uptime reported by other individual services.
  7. Disputes arising out of the Uptime Guarantee must be submitted in writing and claims may not exceed fees paid (either monthly or on a pro-rata basis) to KeyInfo for services not received during downtime. No direct or indirect losses or damages resulting from downtime may be claimed. Service Level commitments will also be taken into account when reviewing disputes. Where agreed provisions have been met, such disputes will be dismissed.
  8. The Services provide access to the internet, which is subject to bandwidth constraints, system failures and all manner of other factors that may impact on the Client’s access, for which KeyInfo accepts no responsibility.

15. Use at Client’s Risk

  1. KeyInfo will exercise no control whatsoever over the content of the material hosted on, or the information passing through the KeyInfo network and in no way moderates such content.
  2. Clients expressly agree that use of KeyInfo’s Server(s) and Services are at the Client’s sole risk.

16. Basic Backups

  1. Clients are solely responsible for backing up their data and KeyInfo strongly encourages ALL Hosting Clients to do so as frequently and completely as possible. KeyInfo will not be liable for any data loss or any other losses or damages related to backups or data recovery without exception.
  2. KeyInfo may, in some instances, offer a separate backup service and will make such backups available to Clients on request as and when they are available. However, KeyInfo does not warrant or guarantee the availability, completeness or “up to date” status of such backups.
  3. Clients are ultimately responsible for their own data, and KeyInfo strongly encourages such Clients to continue to make their own backups as frequently and completely as possible to ensure that they have recourse in the event of any failure.
  4. KeyInfo also cannot guarantee the condition or fitness of any backups provided. Such backups are provided “as is” and are used at the Client’s own risk and discretion – whether restored by KeyInfo by instruction from Clients or by Clients themselves.
  5. KeyInfo will not be liable for any losses or damages relating to any incidents arising out of such backups being provided (or not provided) to Clients on request.

16.2 Premium Backups

  1. Clients who purchased our premium backup service will receive daily, weekly and monthly backups.
  2. KeyInfo will strive to ensure that these backups are up to date, accurate and healthy.
  3. However, should KeyInfo be made aware of a broken website or any instance where a backup is required but is too late and the backups are corrupted too, the client will not hold KeyInfo accountable for any damages caused.
  4. Backups can only be restored by the client or by keyinfo but only after instruction to do so by the client.
  5. The backups will be made available to clients at all times.

17. Spam/Virus Filtering

  1. KeyInfo provides a spam and virus filtering system to protect Clients from unsolicited mail and viruses. The Client acknowledges that this system might incorrectly identify a valid message as spam or as a virus and consequently this message might not be delivered to the Client. The Client acknowledges and agrees that KeyInfo shall without limitation have no responsibility for, or liability in respect of any data lost as a result of this system.
  2. KeyInfo reserves the right to examine incoming or outgoing mail to the extent necessary to determine if it is classified as spam or malicious.
  3. The Anti Virus is also not guaranteed to find and eliminate all viruses sent through it.

18. Webmail

  1. Webmail and other web-based email services made available by KeyInfo are provided on an “as is” basis without representations, warranties or conditions of any kind, and the Client acknowledges and agrees that KeyInfo shall have no responsibility for, or liability in respect of, any aspect of the webmail services, including without limitation for any lost or damaged data or any acts or omissions of KeyInfo. As webmail storage space is limited, some webmail messages may not be processed due to space constraints or message limitations.

19. Limitation on Mail Size

  1. Individual mail sent to the Client’s POP3/IMAP box or forwarded to the Client’s existing email address may be limited to 25000kB in size each.

20. Takedown Notice Procedure

  1. In terms of section 75 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (“the ECT Act”) the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) can instruct KeyInfo to perform a site takedown upon receipt of notification of infringements as defined in Section 77 of the Act.

    Any enquiries can be directed to ISPA at:
    Postal address: PO Box 518, Noordwyk, 1687, Midrand
    Tel: 010 500 1200
    Email: takedown@ispa.org.za

    Should KeyInfo receive a takedown notice from ISPA, KeyInfo will endeavour to:
    1. Notify the Client in good time of the takedown notice.
    2. Allow the Client reasonable time to remove the disputed, illegal or infringing content.
    3. Takedown any sites or services which are included in the ISPA takedown notice.

21. Retention of Rights

  1. KeyInfo makes no claim to the intellectual property (such as data) of Clients hosted on their servers. However, all equipment remains the property of KeyInfo and retention of data does not directly or indirectly give ownership of KeyInfo hardware to Clients.

22. Software Updates

  1. KeyInfo will be responsible for updates to Operating Systems and Shared Libraries on Shared Hosting Servers.

23. Disclaimers, Limitations and Indemnities

  1. KeyInfo will not be liable for any loss or damage, interruption of business, or any indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any kind (including lost profits), regardless of the form of action, whether in contract, delict, or otherwise which may be suffered as a result of or which may be attributable, directly or indirectly, to the use and/or registration of the Client’s selected domain names/s OR ANY ACTION TAKEN BY KEYINFO IN RESPONSE TO THE ABUSE OF THE DOMAIN REGISTRATION SERVICES WHICH IT OFFERS.
  2. The Client hereby indemnifies and holds harmless KeyInfo against any loss whatsoever arising from any dispute or claim or other action occasioned by the Client’s use and registration of its selected Domain Name, even if KeyInfo has been advised of the possibility of such damages;
  3. KeyInfo will not be liable for any indirect or consequential loss, damage, cost or expense of any kind, irrespective of how such damage or loss was caused, whether arising under contract, delict or otherwise, including, and not limited to, data loss or corruption, loss of profits, contracts, operation time and goodwill.
  4. Neither KeyInfo, its employees, affiliates, agents, third party information providers, merchants, licensers or the like, warrant that KeyInfo’s Server service will not be interrupted or error-free; nor do they make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from the use of the Server service or as to the accuracy, reliability or content of any information service or merchandise contained in or provided through the KeyInfo Server service, unless otherwise expressly stated in this Agreement.
  5. KeyInfo expressly limits its liability to the Client for damages suffered due to any non-accessibility time or other down time to the pro-rata monthly charge during the system unavailability. KeyInfo specifically denies any responsibilities for any damages arising as a consequence of such unavailability.
  6. KeyInfo is not responsible if an external company network and firewall is setup to block access to services KeyInfo provides. If a Client’s network is setup to block certain ports or web addresses that compromise the services KeyInfo provides it is the Client’s responsibility to ensure that their network configurations are changed as necessary.
  7. Clients also hereby indemnify KeyInfo against any 3rd party claims against themselves as resellers or services provided to the public or privately. Clients will be solely liable to external parties for losses and may, in no way, petition KeyInfo to share or cover such losses or liability, either directly or indirectly. KeyInfo is also indemnified from direct claims from Clients for losses incurred due to 3rd party actions or claims.

24. SSL

  1. Every hosting account comes standard with an AutoSSL certificate. This certificate only encrypts the website files and does not encrypt email.

25. Plugin/Theme Maintenance

  1. Plugin and Theme maintenance ensures that a clients websites plugins and themes remain up to date. The purpose of this is to keep the website functioning properly.
  2. These services do not include any web development and are solely meant to update the themes and plugins on the websites.
  3. This service does not apply to any clients website not built by KeyInfo. KeyInfo may assess the clients website and after careful consideration choose to maintain a website not built by KeyInfo but this decision is only up to KeyInfo.
  4. The time spent updating the website is determined by the package. The time is calculated by monthly total multiplied by twelve and divided by R513.00.

26. Content Updates

  1. Content updates are updates done to the websites content (information, contact info, and logo replacing).
  2. This does not allow for design of new logos, design of website structure, changes to the sliders, or changes to other plugins.
  3. The time spent updating the websites content is determined by the package. The time is calculated by monthly total multiplied by twelve and divided by R513.00.

27. Web Development Maintenance SLA

28. The web development SLA is for websites built by KeyInfo only.

  1. KeyInfo may assess the client’s website and after careful consideration choose to maintain a website not built by KeyInfo but this decision is only up to KeyInfo.