Have you reviewed their ToS to see if you can build a case against them? This is pretty horrendous and I'm sorry you are having to deal with this. They are essentially holding your intellectual property hostage and I would think you could have grounds for legal action but IANAL...

Did you have backups?

MaXe - this is sad news. I was a member of your site. Though I haven't been active in the past few months, we spoke not long ago and I know you were getting new themes up for it and everything. Very sad to hear they would do this.

Fullt agree with turner and 3xban here. I hope you have backups. Intern0t had great material.

Some of it was shared, and another part was on a non-shared VPS. Keep in mind they also deleted the domain name from their nameservers and everything else in my account. (I can't even access the account, as it basically "doesn't exist".)

The domain should still legally be my property, even though I have no control over it.


Indeed, and I remember we spoke as we occasionally do  About the theme, yes that was implemented not long ago and I had even made some custom fixes, etc. I do have backups, but the database is a bit outdated afaik.

The main problem is not backups, but the domain, and a few other things 


I've reviewed their ToS and if they don't like the content on a particular website, then they are more than free to shut it down without any warning. See 8.6, 8.8 and 8.13 as guidelines that are vague, but describes somewhat that they can do whatever they want.

You're right about the paranoia, it's because of all the people abusing their skills that we, the legit and ethical hackers gets a bad name.

I also think that they should at least, reinstate the domain and allow me to transfer it, including the files I had stored, at least one single database, and a few other minor things.


I've reviewed it and a few other friends have too, their ToS is a bit vague, meaning they've basically defined they can do whatever they want to without any warning. It really is horrible, I hope they will one day open their eyes to what Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing is, or at least just give people a warning to remove inappropriate material or a warning before they terminate your account.

You're right that they're holding my intellectual property hostage (esp. the domain), but there isn't much I can do, except the domain which I may have a decent chance with.

Hmm, that's odd considering EH-Net is hosted with 1&1 isn't it Don?

Wow, that's new.  Though, I cannot imagine form a legal point of view that they are allowed to delete your domain since it is definately not their property.

I had a talk the other day with the customer support of another hoster concerning the termination of a dedicated server and I asked them what will happen to my registered domain - I wanted it moved to another webspace within the same hoster.  He said, that they cannot just "delete or move" my domain(even within the same hoster) since they need my written approval (or something similar).  I mean sure 1&1could forge a termination "in your name" at the IANA ... but then I guess you could write the them to complain.

On the other hand... as hard as it is... they are not forced to host your content... As you have already mentioned ... every hoster has their "get rid of anybody" clauses... especially like don also wrote:
 

so here I see no chance...

I am sorry for you.  Hope at least it works out for your domain.
Now I am glad I didn't go to 1&1 when I bought a new hosting package last week  

I don't know how much space or resources are needed (for either of you) but I'm pretty happy with my $5/mo ($51/year) VPS from VPSCOLO (link).

Their support is good (though with your own VPS you kind of are the support) and they are pretty flexible with what you can do. I even came out and told them I needed to do some security testing from my box and they had no problem with it.

I use GoDaddy for my other hosting needs (been there for years and don't really have any complaints).

GoDaddy ToS:

I don't know if talking about such subjects means 'promoting or encouraging.'

Update:

The following takes place between my pro-active phone call to the 1and1 "abuse" team to ensure they don't close my account and the email I got today:

From 1and1:
Your contract number:  XXXXXXXX
Your customer ID:  XXXXXXXXX
Our reference:  [Ticket XXXXXXXXXX]
Note:  Your personal 1&1 contract number and your name certify that this e-mail
was sent by 1&1 Internet Inc.

Dear Mr. xxxxxxx,

This is an urgent notice regarding the security of your 1&1 account.

Your 1&1 webspace has been attacked via an insecure software you installed on your webspace.

You will find an analysis of the attack and instructions on how to secure your webspace against future attacks in this e-mail.

In order to impede further attacks, we have disabled these files. Please
note that part of your websites may be impaired.

-----------------------

This was bogus.  I have other accounts running similar software with no warning.  This was targeted.   I lost admin access to all my client websites - 1and1 disabled the joomla admin files.   I called them tonight and the abuse team is closed until Monday.

On a side note, I'm having extreme difficulty trying to transfer my ethical hacking site http://group51.org domain name to a new provider.  This is my second round - "Pending Registry Approval".   1and1 systems are denying my domain transfer even though I provided the auth code and followed all the security steps. 

My 2012 mission is to get off of 1and1 servers.