Introduction: 

Protection of our Customers and our resources, the ability to provide quality service to our Customers, conformance with existing laws, and protection of our reputation as a responsible service provider are all contributing factors to decisions on Acceptable Use Policy violations.

 

It is our intention to allow CT COMM Customers access to everything the Internet has to offer with minimal or no interference. Our belief in Free Speech is a firm commitment to our Customers. However, certain activities are considered inappropriate by the Internet community at large and cannot be permitted under the guise of Free Speech.

 

We do not monitor the activity of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within the Internet community, if we become aware of inappropriate use of our service, we will respond appropriately.

 

If a CT COMM Internet account is used to violate the Acceptable Use Policy, we reserve the right to terminate the service without notice. Our preferred course of action is to advise the Customer of the inappropriate behavior and any corrective action that is necessary. However, flagrant violations of the Acceptable Use Policy will result in immediate termination of service. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

 

It is the policy of CT COMM not to grant an Internet access account to persons who have been convicted of and are currently on probation for an online offense. CT COMM will need to see documentation regarding the termination of probation in order to activate an account.

 

Account reactivation for customers who have been previously terminated because of CT COMM policies and procedures violations is solely at the discretion of CT COMM.

 

As a member of our network community, we encourage you to use your Internet access responsibly. Should you have any questions regarding this policy, feel free to contact us at: [email protected]

 

Reports of activity in violation of this policy may be sent via e-mail to: [email protected]

 

General: 

Your CT COMM account provides you access to a vast collection of networks around the world via the World Wide Web, electronic mail, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and USENET. Your use of these services is subject to the following policy. Violations of this policy may result in termination of your account with or without notice in accordance with the Terms and Conditions that you accepted at the time of registration for your account

 

In general, remember that you may not use your CT COMM account:

 

  • In a manner which violates rules, regulations and policies applicable to any network, server, computer database, web site or ISP that you access through your Internet account;
  • In a manner which violates any law, regulation, treaty or tariff;
  • In a manner which is defamatory, fraudulent, indecent, offensive or deceptive;
  • To threaten, harass, abuse or intimidate others;
  • To damage the name or reputation of the Company, its parent, affiliates and subsidiaries;
  • In a manner which interferes with other customers’ use and enjoyment of the services provided by CT COMM, or
  • To break security on any computer network, or to access an account which does not belong to you.

The information above is a list of guidelines for using your Internet account. The following information is intended as a guideline, and thus cannot be all-inclusive.

 

Account and Network Security: 

Your password provides access to your individual account. It is your responsibility to keep your password secure. Sharing your password and account access with others is prohibited. Attempting to obtain another user’s account password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service.

 

  1. You may not attempt to circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network or account (“cracking”). This includes, but is not limited to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security is prohibited. Examples of these tools include, but are not limited to, password guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools.
  2. You may not attempt to interfere with service to any user, host, or network (“denial of service attacks”). This includes, but is not limited to, “flooding” of networks, deliberate attempts to overload a service, and attempts to “crash” a host.
  3. Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability. CT COMM will cooperate fully with investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected criminal violations.

 

Electronic Mail: 

Your account with CT COMM (CTCN) includes the ability to send and receive electronic mail via CTCN’s electronic mail servers. Written requests (email or fax) are required to permit the sending and receiving of electronic mail (SMTP/POP3) via other electronic mail servers. If any inappropriate activity (see below) is detected, external SMTP server access will be denied or revoked. The following examples are non-exclusive and are provided for guidance to Customers.

 

  1. Use of your electronic mail account to send unsolicited bulk or commercial messages is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, bulk mailing of commercial advertising, informational announcements, charity requests, petitions for signatures, and political or religious tracts. Such material may only be sent to those who have explicitly requested it.
  2. Using a CT COMM address to collect responses from unsolicited bulk or commercial e-mail is prohibited.
  3. Sending mass unsolicited mail or deliberately sending very large messages or files to one or more recipients (“mail bombing”) is prohibited.
  4. Forging or removing electronic mail headers is prohibited. Usage of the CTCN SMTP server to originate email is restricted only to those customers who are a using a CTCN domain or CTCN-hosted domain.
  5. Use of electronic mail to harass or intimidate other users is prohibited. Harassment, whether through language, frequency of messages, or size of messages, is prohibited. Sending a single unwelcome message may be considered harassment. If a recipient asks to stop receiving email, you must not send that person any further messages.
  6. You may not forward or otherwise propagate chain letters, whether or not such messages solicit money or other items of value, and whether or not the recipient wishes to receive such mailings.
  7. CT COMM accounts may not be used to collect replies to messages sent from another Internet Service Provider, where those messages violate this Acceptable Use Policy or the Acceptable Use Policy of the other ISP.

 

Protection of Network Performance: 

CT COMM reserves sole discretion to determine whether any customer’s use of the service interferes with other customer’s use and enjoyment of the services.

 

  1. You will be required to have a subscription to a quality Internet Security Suite that provides a minimum of Virus / Trojan / Spyware protection combined with a personal firewall in operation on all computers attached to CTCN’s Network.
  2. CTCN does provide a free ZoneLabs Security Suite for each customer PC (up to five), as long as your PC operating system is supported by Microsoft (Windows XP or higher). Older versions of Microsoft Products will need a subscription from a vendor who supports discontinued operating systems (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, or 2000) or an upgrade to Windows XP.
  3. If your PC’s are found to be compromised or without an active Security solution of some kind will be disconnected from the network until that issue is addressed.
  4. The sending of excessive amounts of email or excessively large files which, in CT COMM’s sole opinion, negatively affects the performance of the network or any server on the network may result in deletion of the offending message or file, and may result in the termination of services.
  5. CT COMM accounts operate on shared resources. You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performance of CT COMM systems or networks. CT COMM reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities.
  6. CT COMM reserves the right to delete messages or files which have remained on its servers for excessive periods of time as determined by CT COMM, in its sole discretion. Each Customer account will be provided 20 megabytes of storage for email. If your account exceeds the 20 megabytes of space, all messages over 90 days old will be deleted.
  7. You may not employ automated electronic or mechanical processes designed to defeat network inactivity time-outs. Such tools include, but are not limited to, use of an auto-dialer and repetitive pinging the host.
  8. You may not provide network services for sale from your account unless authorized in writing by CTCN.

 

Personal Home Pages:

Your account with CT COMM provides the option to post a personal home page on space provided. CT COMM will not routinely monitor the contents of your personal web page.

 

  1. You are solely responsible for any information contained on your personal home page. However, if complaints are received regarding language, content or graphics contained on your personal home page, CT COMM may, at its sole discretion, remove the personal home page and terminate your personal home page service.
  2. You are responsible for maintaining local copies of your web page files for replacement purposes.
  3. You may not use your personal home page space to publish material which CT COMM determines, at its sole discretion, to be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, “material” refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics (including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs, video recordings, and audio recordings.
  4. Unlawful content is that which violates any law, statute, treaty, regulation, or lawful order. This includes, but is not limited to: obscene material; defamatory, fraudulent or deceptive statements; threatening, intimidating or harassing statements, or material, which violates the privacy rights or property rights of others (e.g., Copyright or Trademarks).
  5. Indecent content is that which depicts sexual or excretory activities in a patently offensive matter as measured by contemporary community standards.
  6. Objectionable content is otherwise legal content with which CT COMM concludes, in its sole discretion, it does not want to be associated in order to protect its reputation and brand image, or to protect its employees, shareholders and affiliates.

 

Examples of prohibited personal home page content:

 

  • Materials which depict or describe scantily-clad and lewdly depicted male and/or female forms or body parts, and which lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
  • Materials which suggest or depict obscene, indecent, vulgar, lewd or erotic behavior, and which lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
  • Materials which hold CT COMM (including its affiliates, employees or members) up to public scorn or ridicule, or which unreasonably criticize the company, its employees or its products.
  • Materials which encourages the commission of a crime; or which tends to incite violence; or which tends to degrade any person or group based on sex, nationality, religion, color, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability or political affiliation.

 

 

Third Party Internet Relay Chat (IRC): 

Although CT COMM does not offer IRC software or technical support to access third party IRC servers, you may not use IRC scripts or programs that interfere with or deny service to other users on any other server or host. You also may not engage in activities, which harass other users. This includes, but is not limited to, “flooding” (rapidly entering text with the intent to disrupt service), “flashing” (disrupting terminal emulation), “takeovers” (improper seizing and abuse of operator privileges), attempting to send private messages to those who do not wish to receive them, attempting to return to a channel after being banned from it, and other disruptive behaviors. You may run clones (multiple simultaneous IRC connections) and robots only as permitted by the host IRC server.

 

 

Illegal Activity: 

Any activity on CT COMM that is a violation of any state or federal law is a violation of this policy and will result in immediate termination of service. CT COMM will assist law enforcement agencies as appropriate to comply with state or federal laws. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:

Transmitting obscene materials; intentionally spreading or threatening to spread computer viruses; gaining or attempting to gain unauthorized access to private networks including CT COMM private network infrastructure; accessing or attempting to access information not intended for the Customer; engaging in the transmission of pirated software; and, conducting or participating in illegal gambling, soliciting for illegal pyramid and other schemes through electronic mail or USENET postings.