HostGator Doesn’t Allow Customers to Host Torrent Files
Written by Ernesto on September 14, 2007The popular hosting company HostGator effectively bans its customers from storing .torrent files on their servers. They want you to store podcasts or other media files on their server instead of saving bandwidth and resources by offering it as a .torrent download.
From HostGator’s Terms of Service: “Please note that you may link to torrents off server, but may not host or store them.”
One of the benefits of offering media files for download via BitTorrent is that it takes the load off the server and decreases the chance of your site becoming inaccessible due to excessive bandwidth consumption.
Apparently HostGator doesn’t care, they want you to just store your podcasts, videos and other media files on their server instead of saving bandwidth by offering it as a .torrent file.
Unfortunately, it can become quite a costly affair if you surpass the bandwidth limit set by your host. Good for them of course, because that will increase your bandwidth bill, but not very customer friendly.
I can see that they don’t want you to run a BitTorrent tracker or a client on a shared server because these use quite a lot of resources, but there is absolutely no valid reason to simply ban .torrent files. As far as I can see this would only save bandwidth and thus resources.
And it gets even worse, you’re also not allowed to: “Participate in any file-sharing/peer-to-peer activities”
This is getting ridiculous, most webhosting companies at least have good reasons to disallow certain activities on their servers. But, just banning everything that’s related to filesharing like HostGator does is a little too much if you ask me.
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20 Responses
I used to be a hostgator customer, and overall they are a very good host (except this issue of course).
I had an uploader site hosted there, but had to move it elsewhere after it was terminated because it had “.torrent files, which *usually* link to copyright files”
Earlier this year I had signed up for a HostGator.com account, but, after reviewing their overly-restrictive Terms Of Service, I cancelled the account and got a refund.
If enough current and potential customers complain, a good hosting company will update their terms and conditions to meet customer demand.
Let’s see how responsive HostGator really is…
They probably don’t care about piracy at all. However, they do want to avoid being ass raped by the RIAA/MPAA.
So, you are not allowed to run SMS services, email or skype on this servers, all kind of servers that can use torrents nowadays…
A dollar not earned is a dollar lost.
They are actually not banning *everything* related to file sharing. P2P-Blog.com is hosted there, and I haven’t had any problems :)
Same problem with 1and1. I know lot of people who got kicked off for having .torrent files on their server. all of the files of course were legal items such videos and large amounts of photos. In addition 1and1 just cut off their entire server access without warning, didn’t allow restoring the content on the server, and demanded extra money to upgrade to a dedicated server. Some hosts are just getting ridiculous. the best experience i’ve had so far is with mediatemple
Tell HostGator managment what you think: feedback@hostgator.com
I never liked Hostgator and never will . Bunch of jews working with the MPAA
Expect more MiiVi style content enforcement. You can’t seriously think MediaDefender was alone in what they were doing. Hell, they were spying on their own competition. Do you think there aren’t 3-4 companies doing exactly the same things?
To all hostgator customers…
what did you hate about bluehost?
what is your new web hosting now?
what makes your new web hosting better than previous hosts?
Your answers will help me find a better host. Thank you.
I got all my files deleted. Now I upload passworded RAR’s
yup, thats too bad. I was planning a torrent site before, anyway, I guess just get another webhost for that.
Does anyone know of any host that allows direct-linking to copyrighted files? I ran a forum awhile back hosted on (hostmonster.com) and they shut it down because my members were uploading files via (rapidshare/megaupload/etc) and direct linking to them.
I’ve had nothing but problems since I started using HostGator. A couple of the guys in tech support are friendly…….
I’ve had problems with the following in about a month of service:
1: When I deleted and tried to redo a blog, I had to get support involved. They pointed an add-on domain to my primary domain which messed both websites up for 2 days. Serious branding issues occurred and nobody at host gator believed this was a mess up on their end.
-When I finally convinced them to do what I told them needed to be done, they were like “okay, that’s weird, I wonder why he did that”…. Like I said, this was 2 days later.
2: I came home last night to find my primary domain, and all my domains were timing out. I called support who said that the server was under attack, and I could either deal with it or find another hosting company (that was jeff). the 2nd guy hung up when I said I could access the page through pagewash.com, but he hung up while I was trying to tell him that I still needed to access it through my regular channels, that other people were having the same problems, and that the website that was showing on pagewash wasn’t formatted correctly. The 3rd guy submitted a ticket, and suggested I pay them $15 to send me the back-ups.
Bottom Line with HostGator. Get ready for downtime and hassles.
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