In order for Texas.Net to keep your service the best it can be, we have a set of guidelines known as our "Acceptable Use Policy." These guidelines apply to all customers equally and covers dialup account usage as well as mail, news, and other services.

We may add, remove, or change any of these policies at any time, so we ask that you check them from time to time. If you have any questions about these policies, please e-mail helpdesk@texas.net.

Texas.Net offers consumer dialup accounts. These give you immediate access to the Internet. You can connect at any time, with no busy signals. You have full access to all the resources of the Internet when you need them, and all for one single, fixed monthly rate.

However, these are single user dialup accounts, not leased lines or dedicated connections. Some restrictions do apply to these accounts:

• Reasonable Attended Use

  Our goal at Texas.Net is to provide you with the highest quality service available, so you may perform whatever tasks you wish while online. We understand that some activities can require occassional longer sessions. However, accounts which remain connected for long periods of time, with little or no data being transferred, use valuable resources needed for continued success of our no busy signal policy.

  Use of a router or other piece of hardware that is designed to maintain a networked connection is not allowed on our dialup accounts.

• Excessive Usage

  Usage patterns that include continuous connections over long periods of time or a large number of consecutive sessions are not consistent with reasonable attended use.

  Texas.Net may disconnect users that have been connected for excessive periods of time. We may exercise this option, or determine a reasonable time, without notice, and this may change at any time.

  Our dialup accounts are not leased-line or dedicated-line accounts, and should not be used as such. Users whose average time online is not appropriate for a dialup account, will be asked to upgrade to a more appropriate level of service for their usage needs.

• Idle Timeouts

  Accounts which are idle for 15 minutes will automatically be logged out by the server. The term idle applies to TCP/IP traffic being passed over the connection. For example, if you are connected, but working off-line composing an e-mail message for more than 15 minutes, your connection will be dropped.

  The 15 minute idle timeout can not be guaranteed, however. There are many types of internet software that can keep an idle connection open by sending a 'test' packet to our modem. It is safest to manually close the connection when finished with your online activities, rather than to depend on the timeout.

• Checking Mail

  Texas.Net operates the most modern and efficient mail servers available. We offer the fastest, most efficient e-mail service possible. Repeated checking of mail at short intervals places an unnecessary burden on the servers. It can also cause problems with your mail file on our server, affecting your ability to get your e-mail.

  If you configure your e-mail program to automatically check mail, Texas.Net recommends that you set the interval over 15 minutes. If you repeatedly check mail at short intervals for extended periods of time, you will be asked to either change the interval or disable the automatic mail checking.

  Email was designed to move a large number of small text files around the internet very quickly. Large e-mail attachments slow down the performance of the mail server, and they can cause problems with your mail program that could prevent you from getting your mail.

  Texas.Net requests that you limit the size of your messages to under 2 megabytes and the overall size of your mailbox to under 5 megabytes. Your e-mail program should be configured to remove mail from the server after it is read.

  Texas.Net may electronically limit the size of individual messages or user inbox size. This will be determined by our engineering staff for the purpose of mail server efficiency, and may change at any time.

  If you need assistance in configuring your e-mail program, please contact Texas.Net Technical Support.

• Web Traffic

  All dialup accounts come with 200 megabytes of space for web pages, and 2 gigabits of bandwidth per month. Additional bandwidth may be purchased on the Account_Info section of our Lonestar web site.

  When the 2 gigabit transfer limit is exceeded, the web site will automatically be shut down. If additional transfer bandwidth is purchased, the site will be reopened within an hour. If not, the site will automatically be activated on the first day of the next month.

• Single User Accounts

  All dialup accounts are single user, single session accounts. Use of an account by someone other than the account owner, or a member of the immediate household, will not be permitted.

  Additional e-mail accounts are available for members of a household. In order for e-mail accounts to be added for use in an office or business, dedicated service must be purchased. Addition of e-mail accounts for use by others in a business, or use of a dialup account by more than one person in a business or office will be considered an abuse of our service.

  Likewise, all dialup accounts support only one connection at any given time. Concurrent sessions are not permitted. Software that allows two or more computers to "share" an internet connection seriously degrade the internet performance on the shared connection, and as such, are not supported.

  Users who violate the single user provisions of our dialup accounts will be asked to upgrade to the appropriate level of service to meet their needs.

• Older Texas.Net Accounts

  The above guidelines apply to all Texas.Net dialup accounts, both past and present. This includes all Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Megaweb Accounts, as well as any of the older dialup accounts designated as "commercial" (that are not dedicated service accounts).

At Texas.Net, we would like every person to have the best Internet experience possible; however, we do not wish it to be at the expense of others. The Internet is a global computer network which is comprised of people from diverse backgrounds. When communicating with people on the Internet, it is best to keep in mind that the person on the other end wants to be treated with the same respect as you would expect.

Texas.Net is but one member of a responsible community of Internet Service Providers. Texas.Net cooperates fully with other providers, as well as those who operate IRC or game servers on the Internet. Servers which allow public access have their own standards and regulations to ensure that all users can enjoy thier online experience.

Reports of reckless, irresponsible, abusive, or malicious behavior by a Texas.Net customer will be investigated. If those reports are substantiated, violators will be asked to either cease those activities or to seek a new Internet Service Provider.

Following is a set of guidelines regarding the most common forms of Internet activities: e-mail, USENet News, Internet Relay Chat, and interactive games.

Electronic Mail (E-mail)

Unless you are using an encryption device (hardware or software), you should assume that mail on the Internet is not secure. Never put in a mail message anything you would not put on a postcard (such as your Texas.Net password or credit card information).

• Unsolicited e-mail advertising (SPAM)

  The cost of delivering an e-mail message is paid about equally by the sender and the recipient. This is unlike other media such as physical mail, telephone, TV, or radio. Sending someone mail may also cost them in other ways like network bandwidth, disk space or CPU usage. This is a fundamental economic reason why unsolicited commercial email is unwelcome.

  Using Texas.Net's network to send unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail will result in immediate termination of service.

• Chain Letters

  Chain letters are forbidden on the Internet. If you are found to be sending chain letters, your account status will come under consideration.

• Malicious Email

  Repeatedly sending anyone email with the intent to harass or harm their account (i.e., "flooding" or "mail bombing") is strictly forbidden. Participating in such may be grounds for account termination.

USENET News

The content of USENET newsgroups is not regulated by Texas.Net. Therefore, Texas.Net is not liable for their contents. Please do not contact the administrators regarding copyright issues, inflamatory posts, etc.

The following guidelines are offered when posting to USENET newsgroups:

• Crossposting

  Posting to multiple newsgroups is known as "crossposting" and is strictly forbidden. Complaints of excessive crossposting will be investigated, particularly if it involves posting commercial material or posting to inappropriate newsgroups.

• Commercial Posts

  Commercial posts are frowned upon in most newsgroups. If you are attempting to sell goods or services, please make sure you do so in the proper forums (*.forsale, business groups, etc.).

• Chain Letters/Pyramid Schemes

  According to United States law, chain letters and pyramid schemes are illegal. If you are found to be posting these to news or sending them via e-mail, your account will be terminated.

  To read more about chain letters, you can view a U.S. Postal Service document about them.

World Wide Web (WWW)

Texas.Net does not monitor the content of customer web pages. However, complaints of inappropriate material will be investigated.

• Illegal Material

  It is the responsibility of customers to make sure that all material on their web pages is in compliance with all local, state, and federal laws.

• Copyrighted Material

  Almost every country has copyright laws. Texas.Net cannot and does not review the information flowing through or stored on our system. When you become a Texas.Net customer, you are agreeing not to transfer or store copyrighted works on our system without the permission of the copyright holder.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Internet Relay Chat is a global network of chat servers that offer people the ability to converse in real-time, text based, chat. IRC is controlled by IRC Server Administrators, Server Operators, and Channel Operators. Those who run IRC servers appoint server administrators and server operators. People who create an IRC channel are channel operators, along with any others who they appoint.

Due to the open nature of IRC, it is not possible for Texas.Net to monitor the content of speech. IRC is often viewed as a chaotic network. You will encounter a diverse group of people from around the world on IRC and you may be exposed to material that you find offensive.

Below is a set of guidelines to use when on IRC:

• Bots

  Automated processes which run on IRC without humans interacting behind them are known as BOTS. Although some bots may seem beneficial, they take up space which a human could use, and use more bandwidth than a human. Bots may not be run on servers that prohibit them. If a Texas.Net customer is reported to be running bots without the permission of the server administrators, they will be contacted regarding the status of their account.

• Channel Abuse

  People who are found to be "hacking" channel ops, flooding channels with messages, or flooding other users will be contacted about these activities. We wish for everybody to have an enjoyable experience on IRC, but we do not wish this to be at the expense of others.

• Harassment and Antisocial Behavior

  Although freedom of speech is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution, Texas.Net frowns upon those who act in an antisocial or irresponsible manner towards others. Examples of antisocial behavior include, but are not limited to, nickname collision, use of abusive or lewd language, or stalking (following another user from channel to channel or continued messaging of another user who has asked you to stop). If another person requests that you stop your actions, you should honor this.

Today, many of the most popular multimedia games are available for online play. Users can login to a game server, such as quake.texas.net, and play games with other users in real time.

Each game server has its own set of acceptable use policies. We expect our customers to follow the rules of appropriate behavior when using public servers on the Internet.

Examples of unacceptable behavior would include any actions that would prevent others from participating, or any hacking or cheating that would deny others an equal opportunity to play. BOTS or any other forms of automated play are prohibited by all game servers. Of course, any form of cheating will get a user banned from a game server.

Complaints from game server administrators about Texas.Net customers may be treated as violations of the Texas.Net Acceptable Use Policy.

Texas.Net reserves the right to refuse service to anyone or to terminate any account, at any time, for any reason.