Knowledgebase

Here at ServerAstra we constantly monitor our infrastructure and suspend and terminate accounts which violate our Terms of Service agreement.
We rely on healthy customer-provider relationship and are ready for dialogue and special measures, however we won't allow abuse of our trust.
Some cases require additional explanations, in this document we hope to clarify abuse and fraud handling logic for our customers.

Systematic/Burst Spam Handling
According to our Terms of Service, Spamming is a serious violation of rules on our premises. We do not tolerate SPAM and do not support anyone involved in such activity.
Any account which has proven evidence of burst spamming (ie multiple IPs get multiple abuse complaints) or systematic spamming (1 or 2 abuse complaints on a similar message within short time span) will be suspended until ToS violation fee is paid.
If the fee is paid, however ToS violation continues, the account will be removed without any reconsideration and the customer will be banned permanently from using our services.
In case we suspect shared Bank/Paypal account usage we will suspend all accounts connected to that Paypal account or bank account no.
Any accounts listed or connected to Spamhaus ROKSO database will be removed without any notice and refund as well as all accounts anyhow connected to that.

Quick Q&A:

Q: I've acquired/bought this mailing list and it is totally legit, we handle spam complaints
A: If there are abuse complaints from spam traps or honey pots it means you acquired that email without any consent and you will be processed according to the Spam handling procedure listed above.

Q: I'm sorry, it is my customers' fault it wasn't me.
A: Because we have only your account in the database leading to the IP causing abuse, your account will be handled according to the Spam handling procedure.

Q: I've left my system unattended/unpatched, somebody hacked my account
A: Our Terms of service REQUIRE you to keep your system up to date and monitored to prevent abuse. You can always order our advanced administration sysops services from your clients area in case your expertise is not enough to protect your system. While we understand that there is no possibility of 100% security or monitoring we still have tolerance thresholds for such violation and thus will suspend an account if we notice systematic abuse of rules until further consideration and evaluation by our system administrators.

Q: I'm running an open SMTP relay server.
A: Open SMTP relays are forbidden by ToS.

Q: My system is an open proxy.
A: You must monitor it, Proxying SMTP is not allowed. We allow only certain unabuseable ports forwarded, please refer to our Tor exit policy guide, which is self-descriptive, to understand which ports can be proxyied.

Q: But you allow running Tor exits?
A: Tor exits on our premises are run with an extra limited exit policy, if you notice an exit which does not conform to our obligatory policy ruleset please notify our support so we can suspend that account.

Q: This was on a different VPS, why did you disable all of my Services. (systematic occurrence)
A: We do not tolerate spam operation obfuscation. All of your Services active on our premises will be disabled without possibility of refund and you will be handled as a systematic spammer according to Spam Handling procedures listed above. Snowshoe spamming is still Burst/Systematic spamming.

Proxy/Tor exit policy violation Handling
We suspend any account noticed to run a proxying system which does not conform to our exit policy. Tor and proxying are tools which can be used for evil/vile purposes and we will do everything to limit such activities on our premises. We welcome privacy awareness and censorship resistance however our company is strictly against illegal activities, fraud and abuse. If you are going to route traffic you must report to us with the description of your operation.

(Distributed) Denial of Service Handling
We reserve the right to suspend any system which we have evidence of running a (D)DoS operation. There are clear signs of purposed DDoS operation so your system will be questioned only in case our administrators consider the possibility of erroneous system setup or unattended/unpatched system.
Otherwise or if you fail to properly answer our inquiry - service will be terminated, marked as fraud, and your account will be permanently suspended.

Quick Q&A:

Q: I'm sorry, it is my customers' fault it wasn't me.
A: Because we have only your account in the database leading to the IP causing abuse, your account will be handled according to the Spam handling procedure.

Q: My system is an open proxy.
A: You must monitor it, Proxying DDoS attacks is not allowed. We allow only certain unabuseable ports forwarded, please refer to our Tor exit policy guide, which is self-descriptive, to understand which ports can be proxyied. We do not allow proxying with deliberate IP address faking.

Q: I've left my system unattended/unpatched, somebody hacked my account
A: Our Terms of service REQUIRE you to keep your system up to date and monitored to prevent abuse. You can always order our advanced administration sysops services from your clients area in case your expertise is not enough to protect your system. While we understand that there is no possibility of 100% security or monitoring we still have tolerance thresholds for such violation and thus will suspend an account if we notice systematic violation of rules until further consideration and evaluation by our system administrators.

Q: It's an 0-day issue, I did not have time to fix this. (ex. SSTP/NTP amplification)
A: If this 0-day issue - we will apply firewall rules to your system and in case of inability to firewall - suspend it until you contact us so you will update and fix the system. If this system has been exploited and rooted we will offer you to rebuild/redeploy for free.

Handling of accounts involved in Hacking activities
If your account is suspected in hacking, your services will be suspended until you answer our inquiry with description of the operation you are running. Our services strictly forbid bruteforcing and/or port scanning unless you have written pre-mediated consent (ie. pen-testing). If we notice such behaviour we will suspend the system no matter the reason. It is a ToS violation and will be handled accordingly.

Other cases Q&A

Q: Hungarian laws allow XYZ but you forbid it. Why can't I run this on your systems?
A: That's our preference, period.

Q: But I really really want to, how about this $50 on top?
A: Keep it for the next company you find.


To be updated as soon as we receive more questions.