User Agreement

valid as of January 29, 2017

BuddyNS.com operates as a spin-off of FrontDam GmbH, based in Switzerland. BuddyNS.com provides services to improve the reliability of DNS. FrontDam provides services for security and reliability of Internet services.

Introduction

These conditions regulate your use of BuddyNS as a User. You become a User by signing up for a BuddyNS Account. By signing up for an Account You agree to this User Agreement. Use by Visitors is out of the scope of this Agreement. Also see the Privacy Policy complementary to these Terms.

Refer to the Glossary for Capitalised words in the remainder of this text.

Glossary

Account
a private space created by an individual on BuddyNS to control how BuddyNS delivers service
BuddyNS / We / Us
the organisation operating DNS service under the legal name of FrontDam GmbH
Customer
a User who upgraded to a Paid Account
Domain
an Internet Domain Name in DNS terminology
Infrastructure
the computing machinery employed by BuddyNS to deliver its service
Quota
a service limit associated with an Account, e.g. Traffic Quota for queries/month
Support
a User’s point of contact to get help or information about BuddyNS
Team
the group of people operating to deliver BuddyNS’ service
Upgrade
switch an Account to acquire larger Quotas
User / You
an individual who signed up or operates a BuddyNS Account
Visitor
an individual accessing BuddyNS’ website without possessing a BuddyNS Account
Website
the content published under the website www.buddyns.com

Table of Contents

  1. Users
  2. DNS service
  3. Paid Accounts
  4. Support
  5. Legal

A. Users

A1 Eligibility and number

You create and operate a User Account with your official name, on your behalf or on behalf of an organisation. In the latter case, We assume that You are entitled to operate on behalf of the organisation.

You are not allowed to possess multiple Accounts.

A2 Sign up and control

You sign up for an Account by submitting your e-mail address or other contact information. You may choose to submit or remove additional data for services, or discontinue the account altogether. No entitlement comes with the creation of an account other than control over its data.

We may occasionally alter your account; for example, because You requested so, or because our Support team deems it appropriate or necessary for your own convenience.

We reserve the right to alter or terminate your account at any time in rare circumstances, including but not limited to:

  • You are violating the terms of this Agreement
  • your account is damaging other users, e.g. You are subject to a large-scale DDoS attacks
  • the Team deems your use of BuddyNS supports unethical purposes, e.g. illegal activities
  • the Team deems You make inappropriate use of your account, e.g. You repeatedly exceed the given service allocations

A3 Truthfulness

All information You submit as part of your Account must be truthful. You are not allowed to submit data belonging to individuals other than You (e.g. somebody else’s phone number), or not under your control (e.g. somebody else’s domain name).

You are responsible for keeping your Account’s data up-to-date.

A4 Cancellation

You may delete your Account at any time. Deletion is as in empty-trash on the production system. Offsite backups and log files may retain traces of the Account for a temporary period.

A5 Communication

We occasionally issue communications to You to help You keep a functional Account. They include, for example, notifications of required configuration changes, or inconsistencies spotted on your Domains. BuddyNS attempts to keep such communication minimal and brief.

You are required to read communication from BuddyNS and take action when required.

A6 Privacy

BuddyNS complies with the applicable Privacy regulations.

B. DNS service

B1 Setup

You begin using BuddyNS’ service by setting up the first Domain in your Account.

Setup takes place as follows:

  1. You request to replicate your Domain on BuddyNS’ website
  2. You receive set up instructions from BuddyNS
  3. You apply the given instructions
  4. the Infrastructure successfully initialises your Domain and begins serving it

BuddyNS provides tools and documents to help You accomplish setup, but it is never responsible to ensure that You do.

B2 Initialisation

All steps of the Setup process need to succeed to initiate the service, while part depends on BuddyNS, part depends on You, and part depends on 3rd parties (e.g., your Internet Service Provider). You are solely responsible to ensure You can reach a successful setup before signing up.

B3 Delegation

You point clients to use BuddyNS’ Infrastructure to resolve your Domains in order to make use of BuddyNS (“Delegation”). Delegation a configuration step typically performed at your Domain’s vendor.

You are solely responsible to ensure You can successfully alter Delegation before signing up.

B4 Service Level Agreement

We provide no guarantee for the availability of the service. In the age of cheap outsourced mass-scale DDoS, we intend not to attract easy business attacks.

We put substantial resources in maintaining a redundant, fast, powerful DNS infrastructure and boasts a 100% uptime since inception.

B5 Quota depletion

Accounts come with Quotas, e.g. the Traffic Quota. You are responsible to make sure You respect all applicable Quotas. When depleting the Quota, You may choose to Upgrade to enlarge your quota or tune your configuration so as to no longer deplete the Quota.

Repeated or exaggerate depletion of a Quota will result in termination of the Account or null-routing of all associated zones.

B6 Malfunction

BuddyNS’ choice to operate DNS — the most critical Internet service — carries outstanding efforts to ensure the reliability, availability and security of its Infrastructure. Business ethics and reputation depend on this.

However, You cannot hold Us responsible for any damage incurred through the use of the Service, including technical malfunction (e.g. overload), corrupt data (e.g. delivering wrong responses), or other incidents.

BuddyNS counts no such incident since inception.

C. Paid Accounts

C1 Free and Paid

Accounts are initially created as “Free” and without any business association.

You may choose to Upgrade your Free Account at any time, thereby getting a Paid Account.

Paid Accounts benefit of larger Quotas and other bounties described on the Website. They are paid on a subscription basis (e.g. monthly, quarterly, yearly).

C2 Payments

We collect payments through the 3rd party service PayPal.com, using subscriptions to eliminate the administrative burden on your and BuddyNS’ side. Subscriptions automatically collect the amount for each term at the expiry of the previous term.

Upon Your request, We may choose to accept payments through other vectors.

C3 Invoices

We only generate invoices for payments on request. To request invoicing, enter your billing data in your Account on the Website.

Invoices are generated automatically at the arrival of each payment. Invoices for payments arrived before the entry of billing data won’t be available.

C4 Upgrade and downgrade

You may choose to upgrade or downgrade your service at any time by starting a new subscription with the desired new service parameters (e.g., a higher Traffic Quota).

C5 Refunds

We allow You to test the service free of charge. You are responsible for using this option to ensure BuddyNS’ service suits your needs and only Upgrade in this case.

We do not refund for Upgrade, overlaps in Downgrade, or Cancellation. We may refund in some circumstances when the Team deems it the ethical thing to do. If You believe this is the case, contact Support.

D. Support

D1 Scope

We offer asynchronous support where You can write to get help of information on BuddyNS.

You may direct to Support any commercial, technical, operational, or other inquiries relevant to Us as a service or company.

D2 Language

English is the only assured language of support. The Website lists other languages that may be transitionally supported, best effort and depending on availability of staff.

D3 Response

Support is best effort. The Team is at liberty of not fulfilling some requests if they are deemed irrelevant, insulting, repetitive, answered in the FAQ or documentation available in the Website, or in other cases.

D4 Timing

Inquires from Users running a free Account are delayed 24 hours. Inquires from Users running a Paid Account reach the team immediately.

D5 Accuracy

We are not responsible for any damage in relation with the advice obtained by our Support.

You may be assured that we train our support Team to reach our technical and ethical quality standards.

E. Legal

E1 Applicable law

Zurich, Switzerland is the venue of jurisdiction, under Swiss law.

E2 Liability

BuddyNS will hold You accountable for damage perpetuated intentionally or due to gross negligence to the Service or other Users of it. You may hold BuddyNS accountable for damages resulting from intentional acts or gross negligence. We are not accountable for damages resulting from Your direct or indirect use of the service in any other case.

E3 Updates to the User Agreement

The terms of this Agreement are subject to change without prior notice; You are responsible to monitor this document, and terminate your Account in the moment you find yourself in disagreement with any of the terms it includes.