dotNoble Terms of Service
Effective
date: Oct 1, 2026
This Terms of Service Agreement
(“Agreement”) sets out the terms and conditions governing your use of the web
hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated server and related services
provided by dotNoble (Pty) Ltd
(registration number 2026/610008/07) (“dotNoble”, “we”, “us” or “our”).
dotNoble provides all hosting services
offered by Noble Choices Consult (Pty)
Ltd (registration number 2026/486446/07) (“Noble Choices”) to its clients.
Where you order hosting through Noble Choices, dotNoble provides the service
and this Agreement applies.
By registering for or using our services,
you agree to be bound by this Agreement.
1. Account eligibility
1.1
Minimum age requirement You must be at least 18
years old to use our services. Accounts associated with users under this age
may be suspended or terminated.
1.2
Third-party registrations If you register an
account on behalf of another person or entity, you represent that you have the
authority to bind them to this Agreement.
1.3
Account security You are responsible for
maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials. We are not liable
for any loss or damage resulting from unauthorised access due to weak or
compromised passwords.
1.4
Accurate information You agree to provide accurate,
current and complete information during registration. Failure to do so may
result in suspension or termination of your account.
1.5
Verification We may request identity or payment
verification to prevent fraud, including photo identification or credit card
confirmation. Failure to comply may result in service denial or cancellation.
1.6
Compliance with laws You agree to use our services
in compliance with all applicable local, national and international laws.
Illegal, abusive or unethical use of our services is strictly prohibited.
2. Prohibited activities
The following activities are strictly
prohibited. Violations may result in immediate suspension or termination of
your account:
•
Running IRC servers or related
services
•
Using automated browsing tools,
bots or traffic exchanges
•
Hosting pirated software,
illegal downloads/uploads or warez
•
Using hacking tools,
brute-force programs, port scanners or IP scanners
•
Using the hosting service or
mail servers for email marketing, bulk email sending, newsletters or any form
of unsolicited communication
•
Emails may only be used for
regular business or personal correspondence (e.g. client communication,
notifications or order updates)
•
Engaging in fraudulent
activities (e.g. Ponzi schemes, HYIPs)
•
Operating gambling, lottery or
betting websites
•
Running public VPNs, proxies,
anonymisers or TOR exit nodes
•
Cryptocurrency mining or
similar high-resource activities
•
Hosting phishing pages, malware
or fake login portals
•
Illegal file hosting or
unauthorised streaming services
•
Hosting or operating streaming
websites, media streaming platforms or any service designed to deliver
continuous audio/video content (e.g. movies, series, IPTV, live streams) on
shared hosting packages
•
Hosting adult content or
sexually explicit material
•
Any activity that overloads
servers or disrupts network stability
•
Attempting to bypass security
measures or gain unauthorised access
•
Using website hosting packages
for cloud storage, personal data storage, file archiving, remote backups, media
libraries, or for storing any files not directly required for the functioning
of a publicly accessible website
Note:
We reserve the right to determine what constitutes abuse or a violation and may
update this list as needed.
2.1 Prohibition on using website hosting for file storage
or cloud storage
Website hosting packages are designed
exclusively for hosting websites and their related content. They must not be
used as a file storage, cloud storage, backup, archival, synchronisation or
media storage service. Customers who need general-purpose file storage must use
a service designed for that purpose.
Website hosting is intended solely for the
operation of publicly accessible websites and the files directly required for
those websites to function. Any other type of storage use is strictly
prohibited. The following activities are expressly forbidden:
•
Storing personal files,
documents, media, videos, backups, archives or any data not directly used by
the hosted website
•
Using hosting services as a
cloud drive, personal cloud, remote backup solution, NAS or general file
repository
•
Uploading or storing files that
are not actively and directly used by the website’s frontend or backend
•
Using hosting as a private
storage vault, synchronisation folder, file dump or data warehouse
•
Storing large volumes of data
unrelated to website functionality or website operations
Compliance
requirement If a file is not an active, functional
component of the hosted website, it may not be stored on our website hosting
platform.
Enforcement
and automated file removal dotNoble monitors
website hosting accounts through automated systems and other security measures
to ensure compliance with this Agreement.
If our systems detect files, folders,
archives, backups, media or other content that are not directly required for
the operation of the hosted website, such content may be immediately and
permanently deleted without prior notice. dotNoble reserves the sole right to
determine whether stored content is directly related to the operation of a
website.
dotNoble does not create or retain backups
of files removed under this policy. Any files deleted by our automated systems
or staff are permanently removed and may not be recoverable. By using our
website hosting services, you agree that dotNoble is not liable for any loss of
files or data removed because they were stored in violation of this policy.
Repeated or intentional misuse of website
hosting services for file storage or other non-website purposes may result in
the suspension or permanent termination of the hosting account without refund.
Customers are solely responsible for
ensuring that all files stored in their website hosting account comply with
this policy. Failure to remove non-website content does not prevent dotNoble
from deleting such content without notice.
3. Usage policy
3.1
Fair use and unlimited resources Where dotNoble
advertises “unlimited” storage, bandwidth, websites, email accounts, databases
or similar resources, such resources are provided subject to reasonable and
fair use. Unlimited services are intended for hosting normal business,
personal, informational and ecommerce websites.
The following activities are not considered
fair use and may result in account suspension, resource restrictions, or a
requirement to upgrade to a VPS or other suitable service:
•
Using hosting services
primarily as a file storage, backup, archival, synchronisation or cloud storage
platform
•
Hosting unusually large numbers
of websites that negatively affect server performance or stability
•
Excessive disk usage that is
disproportionate to normal website hosting requirements
•
Excessive CPU, memory, I/O,
inode, database or other system resource consumption
•
Activities that negatively
impact other customers sharing the same infrastructure
•
Any use that, in dotNoble’s
reasonable opinion, exceeds the intended purpose of a shared hosting
environment
dotNoble reserves the right to determine
whether usage is reasonable and to require an upgrade to a VPS, cloud server,
dedicated server or other suitable hosting solution where necessary.
4. Secure Shell (SSH) access
SSH access is disabled by default and may
only be enabled on request with valid justification. Abuse of SSH privileges,
including attempts to compromise server security, will result in immediate
termination.
5. Outgoing email and spam policy
5.1 Email services provided with our hosting are intended solely for
regular business or personal correspondence (e.g. client communication, order
confirmations, notifications).
5.2 Our servers must not be used for email marketing, bulk email
sending, newsletters or mass mailing of any kind.
5.3 Any account found sending marketing emails, bulk mail or spam will
have its email functionality immediately restricted or suspended without prior
notice.
5.4 Repeated or severe violations may lead to full account suspension
or termination.
5.5
Prohibition of spam Sending spam is strictly
prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, unsolicited emails, bulk
emails sent without explicit recipient consent, deceptive messaging, or any
email activity that violates anti-spam laws or industry best practice, or harms
server or IP reputation.
5.6
Determination and prevention of spam dotNoble
reserves the sole right to determine what constitutes spam, unsolicited
communication or abusive email activity. We further reserve the right to
monitor, block, throttle, restrict or prevent any email from being sent if it
is deemed spam or poses a risk to server integrity, IP reputation or service
quality, without prior notice.
6. Network and server cleanliness
dotNoble actively monitors servers and
networks to maintain a secure, spam-free environment, protect IP reputation and
ensure fair resource availability for all customers.
7. Payment, billing and domain ownership
7.1 All payments are due in advance of service activation.
7.2 Failure to pay on time may result in service suspension or
cancellation.
7.3 dotNoble reserves the right to revise pricing, plans and promotions
with prior notice.
7.4
Domain ownership Domains provided free as part of a
hosting package remain the property of dotNoble until the customer pays for the
domain renewal. Customers may not transfer, sell or claim ownership before full
payment. Non-payment may result in suspension or reclaiming of the domain.
7.5
Domain grace period (newly registered domains) All
newly registered domains (excluding free promotional domains) include a 3-month
grace period from the date of registration. During this period, the customer
must maintain active service and settle all applicable fees. Free domains
provided through hosting packages do not qualify for a grace period and must be
renewed before ownership is transferred.
7.6
Overpayments and account credits Any payments made
in excess of the required service fees, including additional funds added via
EFT, are non-refundable. Such funds will be added to your dotNoble account as a
credit balance and may be used to pay future hosting invoices, domain registrations
or other dotNoble services. These funds cannot be refunded under any
circumstances.
7.7
Subscription billing and automatic payments All
hosting services provided by dotNoble are subscription-based services billed on
a recurring basis unless cancelled.
By subscribing to a hosting service using
PayFast or any recurring payment method, you authorise automatic recurring
charges according to your selected billing cycle (monthly, annually, etc.).
Payments may automatically be deducted from your selected payment method unless
a cancellation request is submitted through the client area before the next
invoice is generated.
Customers are solely responsible for
submitting cancellation requests if they no longer wish to continue using the
service. Failure to submit a cancellation request does not constitute
cancellation of the service. dotNoble cannot determine whether a customer no
longer wishes to use a service unless an official cancellation request has been
submitted through the client area.
No refunds will be issued for recurring
charges processed because the customer failed to submit a cancellation request
before invoice generation or automatic payment processing. Customers are
responsible for ensuring that recurring subscriptions linked to PayFast or any
other payment provider are properly cancelled if they no longer wish to
continue the service.
7.8
VPS services – strict payment policy All dotNoble
VPS and cloud server services are provisioned on automated infrastructure and
are billed at fixed recurring rates.
CRITICAL
NOTICE: STRICTLY NO PAYMENT EXTENSIONS. Payment for
VPS services must be received on or before the invoice due date. No payment
extensions, grace periods, payment arrangements or exceptions will be granted
under any circumstances. If payment is not received by the due date, dotNoble
reserves the right to suspend the VPS service immediately.
If the VPS service remains unpaid, the
server, including all data, operating systems, applications, configurations,
backups and associated resources, may be permanently terminated and deleted
from dotNoble’s infrastructure within three (3) days of becoming overdue. Such
deletion is permanent and irreversible. Once deleted, dotNoble will not be able
to recover any data, operating systems, configurations, applications or server
contents.
Customers agree that dotNoble bears no
responsibility for any loss of data, business interruption, financial loss or
damages resulting from VPS suspension, termination or deletion due to
non-payment. Customers are solely responsible for maintaining their own backups
and disaster recovery procedures at all times.
7.9
Service abandonment and customer communications
Customers are solely responsible for maintaining access to the email address
associated with their account and for monitoring invoices, notices, service
communications and their dotNoble client area.
dotNoble may use the email address
associated with a customer’s account to send automated invoices, billing
notices, service notifications, security notifications and other
account-related communications. These communications do not mean that the email
address is monitored as a customer support channel.
dotNoble does not monitor email addresses
for customer queries or support requests. Customers must use the official
support channels set out in section 10.5, namely WhatsApp chat or the dotNoble
client area support ticket system.
Failure to receive, read or respond to
billing notices, suspension notices, renewal reminders or other communications
does not relieve the customer of their payment obligations or prevent
suspension, termination or deletion of services in accordance with this
Agreement. Sending a query or support request by email does not constitute an
official support request, cancellation request or other actionable request
unless dotNoble expressly confirms otherwise.
7.10
Late payments and administrative fees dotNoble
reserves the right to apply late payment fees, administrative fees, collection
costs or other reasonable charges to overdue invoices. Any such fees will be
displayed on the customer’s invoice, client area or other billing
communication.
Failure to pay late fees does not waive the
customer’s obligation to pay the original invoice amount or any applicable
charges. dotNoble reserves the right to suspend, restrict, terminate or
permanently delete services in accordance with this Agreement regardless of
whether late fees have been applied.
7.11
Refund requests All refund requests are subject to
dotNoble’s Refund Policy,
as published and updated from time to time. Submitting a refund request does
not guarantee that a refund will be approved. Refund eligibility, exclusions,
applicable conditions and any limitations are determined in accordance with the
Refund Policy applicable to the service and payment concerned.
Customers are responsible for reviewing and
understanding the Refund Policy before purchasing or renewing any dotNoble
service. Where the Refund Policy specifically excludes a service, payment,
renewal, account credit, domain registration, migration or other charge from
refunds, such amounts are not eligible for a refund. dotNoble reserves the
right to refuse any refund request that does not meet the requirements of the
applicable Refund Policy.
If this Agreement and the Refund Policy
conflict specifically about refund eligibility or processing, the Refund Policy
governs the refund request.
8. Termination
8.1
By dotNoble We reserve the right to suspend or
terminate any account at our discretion for violations of this Agreement,
security threats or abuse.
8.2
By the customer Customers may cancel services at
any time through the client area. Cancellation requests must be submitted at
least 7 days before the next billing cycle.
8.2.1
Effect of cancellation By submitting a cancellation
request, the customer acknowledges that the associated service may be
permanently terminated and all associated data, files, emails, databases,
backups, configurations and account information may be permanently deleted. It
is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that all required data has been
backed up before submitting a cancellation request. dotNoble is not liable for
any loss of data resulting from a customer-initiated cancellation.
8.3
Automatic permanent deletion of unpaid services
dotNoble reserves the right to permanently terminate and delete any service
that remains unpaid. VPS and cloud server services may be permanently deleted
within three (3) days of becoming overdue, as set out in section 7.8. Other
services may be retained for up to one hundred and twenty (120) days at
dotNoble’s sole discretion before permanent deletion.
On termination, all associated data, files,
databases, emails, backups, configurations and account information may be
permanently removed from dotNoble’s systems without further notice. dotNoble is
not obliged to retain copies of terminated accounts and accepts no liability
for any loss resulting from such deletion.
9. Backups
9.1
Customer responsibility Customers are solely
responsible for maintaining complete and current backups of all websites,
databases, emails, applications, VPS servers and any other data hosted with
dotNoble.
9.2
No backup guarantee While dotNoble may, at its sole
discretion, provide backup services, snapshots or recovery tools for certain
products, such backups are provided on a best-effort basis only and are not
guaranteed. dotNoble makes no warranty regarding the availability, accuracy,
completeness or recoverability of any backup.
9.3
VPS services dotNoble does not maintain customer
backups for VPS or cloud server services unless explicitly stated in the
purchased package. Customers must implement and maintain their own backup
solutions. dotNoble is not liable for any loss of data resulting from hardware
failure, software failure, user error, cyberattacks, service suspension,
service termination or any other cause.
9.4
Terminated services dotNoble is under no obligation
to retain backups, files, emails, databases, server images, snapshots or any
customer data after a service has been suspended, cancelled, terminated or
deleted.
9.5
Files removed under the website storage policy
dotNoble does not create, retain or maintain backups of files removed for
violating section 2.1 (Prohibition on using website hosting for file storage or
cloud storage). Where files are identified as unrelated to website
functionality and are removed by our automated systems or staff, they are
permanently deleted and are not eligible for restoration. Customers expressly
acknowledge that dotNoble has no liability for any loss of data arising from
the removal of files stored in violation of this Agreement.
10. Customer conduct and support
10.1
Respectful communication dotNoble is committed to
providing professional and courteous customer support. In return, customers are
expected to communicate with our staff respectfully and professionally at all
times on any support channel, including but not limited to support tickets,
email, WhatsApp and social media. Abusive, threatening, insulting,
discriminatory, harassing or otherwise inappropriate behaviour towards any
member of dotNoble’s staff will not be tolerated.
10.2
Refusal of support dotNoble reserves the right to
immediately end any support interaction and refuse further support where a
customer engages in abusive or inappropriate behaviour towards our staff.
10.3
Notice to migrate services Where a customer
repeatedly engages in abusive, threatening, harassing or otherwise
inappropriate behaviour towards dotNoble staff, dotNoble reserves the right to
end the business relationship. In such circumstances, dotNoble may give notice
requiring the customer to migrate their websites, email services, domains, data
and any other hosted services to another provider within a notice period set by
dotNoble. The customer is solely responsible for arranging and completing the
migration before the notice period expires.
10.4
Failure to migrate If the customer fails to migrate
their services before the notice period expires, dotNoble may permanently
discontinue the affected services. dotNoble is not liable for any loss of data,
downtime, business interruption or other damages arising from the customer’s
failure to complete the migration in time.
10.5
Official support channels dotNoble provides
customer support only through the following official channels:
•
WhatsApp chat – for general sales and
support enquiries during our published WhatsApp support hours
•
Support tickets – through the dotNoble
client area, for technical support, account matters and issues that need
investigation
dotNoble does not monitor email for
customer queries or support requests. Customers must not send support requests,
technical queries, billing queries, cancellation requests or other
service-related enquiries to dotNoble email addresses. Emails sent to dotNoble
email addresses are not official support requests and may not be read,
monitored or answered.
Customers are solely responsible for
submitting support requests through the correct channel. Failure to use the
designated support channels does not create any obligation on dotNoble to
respond to, investigate or action an email.
Where a matter needs technical
investigation, customers must submit a support ticket through the client area.
WhatsApp may be used for general enquiries and assistance, but customers may be
directed to the client area to submit a support ticket where required.
Customers are also responsible for monitoring their client area and the email
address registered to their account for official service, billing and account
notifications.
11. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law,
dotNoble is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential
damages arising from the use of, or inability to use, our services, including
loss of data, revenue, profits, business opportunities, goodwill or business
interruption. Total liability is limited to the amount paid for the service in
the six (6) months before the event giving rise to the claim.
12. Changes to these terms
dotNoble may update these terms at any
time. Continued use of our services constitutes acceptance of the updated
terms.