Under The Table Written by Sally Terms Of Service How long has it been since you've read the terms of service for your paid server? I bet you haven't read them since you gave them a quick onceover when you signed up. Did you know that the Terms of Service can change at any time and you are expected to stay within those guidelines? All servers have the same TOS you say? True, there are some things that are generic for most servers. All servers in their TOS agreements have eliminated any liability on their part for anything that could, would or should happen. Pornography is usually not permitted, any illegal activity, anything that would jeopardize the server or peoples files is not allowed, spamming is not allowed, hacking, of course, is not permitted. We all expect these in our TOS agreement but some servers have some very interesting restrictions. Some servers say they do not look at your files unless a complaint is made. Other servers reserve the right to snoop in your files at will. So if you thought your private files were actually private, think again. Some servers reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. That, of course, could not apply to the denial of service for reasons of race, religion, etc. That would be against federal law. A few servers reserve the right to delete your entire website at will, even if the TOS has not been violated. Let's hope those folks don't have a bad day. Paid servers usually permit you to put ads on your own webpages. There are a few servers that in their TOS agreements specifically state that ads for other servers are not permitted. With a paid server, linking is usually allowed, but not always....be sure you know for your own server as this could be cause for deletion of your site. Some will give you a bandwidth usage limit and deny that site when the bandwidth is exceeded Most free servers require that everything be on HTML pages and accessable to the public but did you realize some paid servers are the same? True, some paid servers require this while some allow you to store only, if you like. I ran into one TOS statement that said they could charge an additional fee at any time for "maintenance", and another that talked about a quarterly useage fee that may apply. So, the next time your server payment comes due, go to their website and read the TOS....see what has changed. If their TOS statement seems to be eroding your privacy or if you feel that paying for space is incompatible with having them tell you what you can do with the space as far as linking, or having everything in HTML pages, ads that may bring you income, etc; it might be time to shop for another server. Back to the Tribune Counted 4847