Web Host Storage

Most web hosting packages come with quite a hefty chunk of storage space. So, you might be tempted to save yourself a few dollars by using all that spare space to back up your digital photos or mp3 files, say…

Well, Amit Agarwal warns against doing that, because it would be in breach of the host’s terms and conditions.

The customer agrees to make use of Web Hosting servers primarily for the purpose of hosting a website. Data uploaded must be primarily for this purpose; Web Hosting servers are not intended as a data backup or archiving service.”

However, there’s a simple way around this, that might pose a little bit of a security risk, but if it’s only photos and music you’re backing up rather than bank statements, then that shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

In order to comply with those terms and conditions then all you have to do is create and upload a sitemap that points to each file you want to backup on your web host. This would then make your backedup files part of a web site. Of course, you’d want to make sure each file was strongly encrypted and you could make all links in the sitemap password protected just to add an extra layer of protection.

No hosting company could argue that you had breached its terms though, as long as you weren’t breaking copyright laws with anything you uploaded. Admittedly, with passwords in place, you’re going to have a rather limited audience and as long as you use no keywords, and tell the search engines not to index (using robot.txt), then you’d have a simple web site that you and your spouse and friends could access without anyone else knowing about it. Job done.