ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

The provisions of this Policy are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive. Any activity or conduct that violates law, regulations or the accepted norms of the Internet community or may harm Valor Telecommunications Enterprises, LLC (Valor) facilities, reputation, goodwill or customer relations, whether or not expressly mentioned in this Policy, is strictly prohibited. Valor reserves the right at all times to revise its Acceptable Use Policy and to take appropriate steps to address violations of that Policy.

Introduction

Valor’s information resources (i.e., information maintained in electronic form and systems that process, store, or transmit such information) are the property of Valor as a matter of law or content. To ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of such assets Valor must impose certain responsibilities upon the users of these assets. The Acceptable Use Policy defines these responsibilities for Acceptable Use.

        I.            SYSTEM AND NETWORK SECURITY

This acceptable use policy has been put in place to: (1) protect network resources, (2) preserve the privacy and security of Valor’s networks, (3) preserve the privacy and security of Valor’s customers' networks, and (4) maximize the availability and utility of Valor’s VBSnet service and the Internet.

                               1.            Customer may not: (i) tamper with other customer accounts, (ii) commit unauthorized intrusion into any part of Valor's network or systems; or (iii) use any of Valor's machines, files, accounts, or systems to intrude without authorization into any other network.

                               2.            Customer may not use Valor services not included in Customer's account, nor circumvent security (or assist others to circumvent security) in order to access services for which the person accessing those services has not entered into a binding agreement with Valor. This includes, but is not limited to, the scanning of Valor’s or other providers’ networks with intent to breach and/or evaluate security.

                               3.            Customer may not use Valor's network or systems in a manner that encumbers disk space, processors or other system resources beyond those allowed by Customer's specific type of account. Customers may not make deliberate attempts to interfere with a service, overload a service, or attempt to disable a host.

                               4.            The use or attempted use of Internet services or systems without authorization is strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, password cracking, defrauding others into releasing their passwords, denial-of-service attacks (sending packets with an illegal packet size, UDP flooding, ping-flooding, half-open TCP connection flooding, etc.). Additionally, Customers may not use programs, scripts, commands, or otherwise send messages with the intent to interfere with a Customer's Internet session.

                               5.            Customer may not monitor data or traffic on any network or system without express authorization of the owner of the system or network.

     II.            UNLAWFUL, HARMFUL OR OFFENSIVE COMMUNICATIONS

It is a violation of this policy for Customer knowingly to use the facilities or services of Valor, including any of Valor’s Internet access, web site hosting and web site design services, to create, transmit, post or otherwise make available through the Internet any material that is unlawful, abusive or harmful to Valor's facilities, customers, goodwill or reputation. Communications prohibited by this Policy include, but are not limited to materials that infringe copyright, trademark or other intellectual property; obscenity, indecency, or child pornography; or defamatory communications. Valor reserves the right to take appropriate action, as described herein, when it becomes aware of transmissions, postings or other communications that violate this Policy.

   III.            E-MAIL

                               1.            Customer may not send unsolicited mail messages including the sending of junk mail or spamming or advertising to individuals who have not specifically requested the material. Customers may not flood/spam newsgroups with commercial or non-commercial postings.

                               2.            Customer may not continue to send commercial e-mail to a recipient if recipient has requested that Customer discontinue such communication. Any use of Valor property for the composition, distribution, or collection of bulk e-mail, abusive e-mail, or any form of unsolicited, commercial e-mail is strictly prohibited.

                               3.            Customer may not transmit e-mail to non-consenting recipients that is harassing, libelous, defamatory, threatening, abusive or hateful, which determination will be made by Valor in its sole discretion.

                               4.            The forwarding or propagation of chain letters of any type (including charity requests or petitions for signatures) is prohibited.

                               5.            Customer may not publish, send, or deliver any private e-mail message to any third parties, by any means, without the express prior consent of the author of the content of such e-mail message

                               6.            "Mail-bombing" (i.e. flooding a Customer site with large or numerous e-mail messages) is strictly prohibited.

                               7.            Customer may not forge header information.

                               8.            Customer may not use their account, or network connection, to collect replies of messages sent from any other provider that violate the rules of this Policy or those of the originating provider.

    IV.            USENET

                               1.            Valor may provide Customers with uncensored Usenet news feed. Valor does not control newsgroup content and will not be responsible for postings by Valor's Customers.

                               2.            It is the responsibility of those persons who post messages to determine a newsgroup's etiquette associated with that newsgroup. Customers that submit content to newsgroups should refrain from posting advertisements or other messages that are not expressly permitted by a newsgroup's charter. Message posters are expected to submit messages relevant to the newsgroup's topic and agree not to submit the same message to large numbers of newsgroups.

                               3.            Customer is prohibited from forging header information and from posting chain letters of any type.

                               4.            Customer may only post binary files to newsgroups designed for that purpose.

                               5.            Customer may not cancel or supersede a posting of a message other than their own unless they serve as newsgroup moderators in the performance of their on-line responsibilities.

                               6.            Customer may not use their account, or network connection, to collect replies of messages sent from any other provider that violate the rules of this Policy or those of the originating provider.

       V.            NETWORK SESSION AND IDLE TIME OUT POLICY

Customers agree to use analog Dial-Up, ISDN and DSL accounts solely on an active basis, i.e. only as needed and in no way on a standby or inactive basis in order to maintain a connection.

A.       SESSION TIME OUT

Valor reserves the right to enable and enforce a "Session Time Out". A Session Time Out is defined as the automatic log off of an online session when a user has reached the maximum session time set on the network.

Valor's current Session Time Out Policy for analog Dial-Up, ISDN and DSL accounts allows customers to remain logged onto the network for up to eight (8) hours per session. Every eight hours the system will end your online session and you will be forced to reconnect a new online session.

B.       IDLE TIME OUT

Valor reserves the right to enable and enforce an "Idle Time Out". An Idle Time Out is defined as the automatic log off of your online session when you have not transferred data in an idle period set by the network.

Valor's current Idle Time Out Policy for analog Dial-Up, ISDN and DSL accounts allows customers to remain logged onto the Valor network idle for up to twenty (20) minutes without ending their online session. Once the twenty minutes idle threshold has been met the online session will automatically be disconnected. 

    VI.            RESPONSIBILITY

Customer will be held accountable for all use and/or abuse taking place using any accounts registered under his or her name. It is the customer's responsibility to secure his or her own account against unauthorized access through the use of secure passwords, and by securing any equipment the customer uses to access the network. Customer agrees to assume all responsibility for actions taking place using his or her account by any individual, regardless of relation.

Valor cannot monitor or censor the Internet, and will not attempt to do so, and does not accept any responsibility for injury to its customers that results from inaccurate, unsuitable, offensive, or illegal Internet communications.

Valor will not intentionally monitor private electronic mail messages sent or received by its customers unless required to do so by law, governmental authority, or when public safety is at stake. Valor may disclose information, including but not limited to, information concerning a subscriber, a transmission made using our network, or a web site, in order to comply with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation, or governmental request. Valor assumes no obligation to inform the subscriber that subscriber information has been provided and in some cases may be prohibited by law from giving such notice.

Valor urges its subscribers to assume that all of their on-line communications are insecure. Valor cannot take any responsibility for the security of information transmitted over Valor's facilities.

The Customer indemnifies Valor for any violation of the service agreement, law, or Valor policy by the customer, that results in loss to Valor or the bringing of any claim against Valor by any third-party. This means that if Valor is sued because of a customer's activity, the customer will pay any damages awarded against Valor, plus costs and reasonable attorneys' fees.

  VII.            ENFORCEMENT

If Valor learns or determines that violations of this policy are occurring or have occurred, Valor reserves the right to take appropriate action, without prior notice and in Valor’s sole discretion, against any party or parties found in violation. Such action may include, but is not limited to, immediate terminate of service and blocking of access to particular websites, newsgroups or other material found to violate the Network Abuse Policy.

VIII.            CONTACT INFORMATION

E-Mail:
abuse@vbsnet.net

Phone:
Valor Customer Service
1-800-629-5002