CGI Abuse

RKL, Inc. allows CGI to be used on all Virtual Servers. CGI can be resource intensive however, and because a Virtual Server must be shared with other users, we must limit how much of the CPU can be used by any one account on a shared server. There are several reasons why RKL, Inc. has created its CGI Abuse policy for its virtual server users.


What does RKL, Inc. consider "CGI ABUSE"?
Any site whose CGI programs are using excessive amounts of system resources. Excessive amounts is defined as any amount that results in substantial degradation of server performance. RKL, Inc. is the sole determinant of what consititues degraded server performance.

Due to their use of flat files instead of databases, RKL, Inc. does not allow the use of UBB or YABB bulletin boards. Use of these boards for large or very active forums, results in system performance degradation, and cannot be allowed in our shared server environment. RKL, Inc. suggests using VBulletin, KMB, or phpBB as a more efficient, database-driven alternative to these bulletin boards.

Why does RKL, Inc. have this policy?

Server Speed and Fairness to others
A Virtual Server is shared. As such, there are many accounts per machine. In all fairness, RKL, Inc. cannot allow one or two clients to use all of the System resources on a shared machine and have all other clients on the machine suffer because of it. Excessive CPU usage by one or more clients causes extreme slowness in all areas: FTP, Telnet, Web Sites and more. If the CPU usage gets too far out of hand, all sites hosted on the machine will return Errors and not be accessible in any way.

What happens if I violate this policy?
All accounts that are found to using excessive amounts of system resources will receive an email warning from RKL, Inc.. This warning will inform you that there is too much CGI running and it will provide options for reducing the usage or upgrading your server. If you do not reduce the usage within 24 hours of the email being sent, your CGI scripts will be disabled.