Server Resource Abuse

Digital Mouse Designs allows CGI, PHP, Perl and many other normal processes used for hosting to be used on our servers. These processes can be resource intensive, therefore we must limit how much of the CPU, memory, disk I/O, disk space and database use can be used by any one account.

Therefore, any program (application, script, etc.) or usage that consumes too many resources in either performance or reliability is considered resource abuse. In the event a user requires more resources than is acceptable, a dedicated server or colocation services are recommended.

What Is System Resource Abuse?

Any site whose traffic, programs and/or processes are using excessive amounts of system resources. Excessive amounts are defined as any amount that results in substantial degradation of server performance. Digital Mouse Designs is the sole determinant of what constitutes degraded server performance.

Our pre-configured hosting packages are designed to be used for small to medium sized web sites and traffic loads. They are not intended for large, busy, resource intensive web sites and they will be suspended if found impacting server performance. These sites, especially those using databases, may require a dedicated solution (Dedicated Server) due to resource usage. If your site falls into this category, please contact us for a custom hosting plan or other alternative suggestions.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

Flat File Database Driven Forums

Digital Mouse Designs does not allow the use of flat-file bulletin boards on our servers. Use of these boards for large or very active forums results in system performance degradation, and cannot be allowed. We suggest using database-driven bulletin boards as a more efficient alternative.

Background Running Processes

Background Daemons in general are prohibited on Digital Mouse Designs servers, including, but not limited to, IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX, XiRCON, warez sites and any other program that interferes with normal server operation.

Persistent SQL Connections:

Due to the fact that persistent SQL connections have the ability to use considerable server resources, this configuration is not allowed. It is understood that in some situations, persistent connections may actually reduce resource usage on a server. However, we have found that connections are commonly not released properly and are, therefore, more detrimental than they are helpful.

Cron Jobs

We allow customers to set up cron jobs to perform routine functions automatically. Due to the impact on the server, running some automated processes can take up considerable server resources and in those cases, our technicians may disable the cron job.

Mailing Lists

We have a strict policy regarding use/spam on our server, but we do allow use of mailing lists within the constraints of our spam policy.

Sending thousands of eMails from a given server can impact the performance of the server. Therefore we limit the amount of eMail allowed to no more than 1000 eMails per day and 30 eMails in 10 seconds.

Exploitable Scripts

Unfortunately, many commonly used scripts can be exploited to allow unauthorized users into our systems. We may on occasion need to ban and consequently disable these scripts. You can review the most current exploits on our banned-scripts page.

Other Banned Scripts & Applications

Included but not limted to (depending on traffic):

AdCycle
Offsite Search Engines