Service Level Agreement

Network Service Level Agreement
Network Service Level Agreement This Service Level Agreement (SLA) applies only to The Drooling Dog customers receiving service within the contiguous United States who are (i) customers of The Drooling Dog T1/T3/OC3/OC12, or (ii) collocation and dedicated server customers ("Customer").

This SLA provides Customer with certain rights and remedies regarding the performance of The Drooling Dog. "The Drooling Dog" means The Drooling Dog owned and operated Internet Protocol (IP) routing infrastructure consisting of The Drooling Dog, Netriplex, LLC and SAVVIS Networks measurement devices at selected The Drooling Dog points of presence ("Selected POPs") and the connections between them in the forty-eight continental United States. The amount of credit available per month is subject to a cap described below.

Availability Guarantee
The Drooling Dog's goal is to make The Drooling Dog available to Customer free of Network Outages for 85% of the time. A "Network Outage" is an instance in which no traffic can pass in or out of Selected POPs for more than 15 consecutive minutes.

Upon Customer's request (in accordance with the procedure set forth below), The Drooling Dog will issue a credit to Customer for Network Outages occurring during any calendar month that are reported by Customer to The Drooling Dog and confirmed by The Drooling Dog's measurements of The Drooling Dog. Such credit will be equal to one day's worth of the monthly Access Fee (as defined below) paid by Customer, multiplied by each hour (or portion thereof rounded to the next hour) of the cumulative duration of such Network Outages, not to exceed in any calendar month the Access Fee paid by Customer for that month.

Latency Guarantee
The Drooling Dog's goal is to keep Average Round-Trip Latency on The Drooling Dog to 180 milliseconds or less. "Average Round-Trip Latency", with respect to a given month, means the average time required for round-trip packet transfers between Selected POPs on The Drooling Dog during such month, as measured by The Drooling Dog.

If Average Round-Trip Latency on The Drooling Dog for a calendar month exceeds 180 milliseconds, then upon Customer's request (in accordance with the procedure set forth below), The Drooling Dog will issue a credit to Customer equal to and not to exceed in any calendar month one day's worth of the Access Fee (as defined below) paid by Customer for such month.

Packet Loss Guarantee
The Drooling Dog's goal is to keep Average Packet Loss on The Drooling Dog to 5% or less. "Average Packet Loss", with respect to a given month, means the average percentage of IP packets transmitted on The Drooling Dog during such month that are not successfully delivered, as measured by The Drooling Dog.

If Average Packet Loss exceeds 5% during a calendar month, then upon Customer's request (in accordance with the procedure set forth below), The Drooling Dog will issue a credit to Customer equal to and not to exceed in any calendar month one day's worth of the Access Fee (as defined below) paid by Customer for such month. The terms of this SLA relating to Average Round-Trip Latency and Average Packet Loss will take effect the first full calendar month after Customer's first use of The Drooling Dog.

Access Fee Definitions
For dedicated server Customers, the Acess Fee consists solely of the base monthly fee paid by Customer for standard server packages, including the use of the server, the use of electricity to the extent provided to the Customer without additional charge, and up to the amount of data transfer allowed each month without additional charge. The Access Fee for purposes of the SLA credit excludes all other fees which might be charged to the Customer, including, without limitation, charges relating to managed services, incremental bandwidth usage and fees for electricity, extra IP addresses, RAM, or hard drives beyond that which is available without additional charge under The Drooling Dog's standard rates. This list of potentially excluded fees is offered solely for purposes of illustration and not by way of limitation.

The Access Fee for all other Customers is the base monthly access fee paid by Customer for use of the applicable The Drooling Dog service at the amount of data transfer allowed each month without additional charge, excluding set-up fees, fees for additional services, and for server and other types of options. Such excluded fees will vary by the type of applicable service, and could consist of fees for local loop, extra and/or burstable bandwidth, add-on components, extra IP addresses, hourly support charges, electricity when an additional fee is charge for such an item, and managed services. This list of potentially excluded fees is offered solely for purposes of illustration and not by way of limitation.

Exceptions
Notwithstanding anything in the SLA to the contrary, Customer shall not receive any credits under this SLA in connection with any failure or deficiency of The Drooling Dog caused by or associated with:

  • a. Circumstances beyond The Drooling Dog's reasonable control, including, without limitation, acts of any governmental body, war, insurrection, sabotage, embargo, fire, flood, strike or other labor disturbance, interruption of or delay in transportation, unavailability of or interruption or delay in telecommunications or third party services, failure of third party software or inability to obtain raw materials, supplies, or power used in or equipment needed for provision of the Service Level Agreement;
  • b. Failure of access circuits to The Drooling Dog, unless such failure is caused solely by The Drooling Dog;
  • c. General telco failure;
  • d. Emergency and scheduled maintenance and upgrades; The Drooling Dog will do everything in its power to notify customers of maintenance cycles however maintenance cycles may be performed without notification to the customer in advance.
  • e. DNS issues outside the direct control of The Drooling Dog;
  • f. Outage or error of any The Drooling Dog measurement system;
  • g. Customers' acts or omissions, including without limitation, any negligence, willful misconduct, or use of The Drooling Dog or The Drooling Dog services in breach of The Drooling Dog's Terms and Conditions and Acceptable Use Policy, by Customers or others authorized by Customers.

Measurement
The Drooling Dog will periodically (on average every 15 minutes) measure The Drooling Dog at Selected POPs using software and hardware components capable of measuring application traffic and responses at such Selected POPs. Customer acknowledges that not every POP may be covered by such measurements, that such measurements may not measure the exact path traversed by Customer's packets, and that such measurements constitute measurements across The Drooling Dog but not other networks to which Customer may connect. The Drooling Dog reserves the right to periodically change the measurement points and methodologies it uses without notice to Customer.

Credit Request and Payment Procedures
Requests for credits must be made on the Web site designated by The Drooling Dog. Each request in connection with a Network Outage must be received by The Drooling Dog within seven days of the Network Outage. Each request in connection with Average Round-Trip Latency or Average Packet Loss in a calendar month must be received by The Drooling Dog within seven days after the end of such month.

Each validly requested credit will be applied to a Customer invoice within 2 billing cycles after The Drooling Dog's receipt of such request. Credits are exclusive of any applicable taxes charged to Customer or collected by The Drooling Dog, and are subject to the caps described in the various SLA categories.

Notwithstanding anything in this SLA to the contrary, the total amount credited to a Customer in connection with Network Outages, Average Round-Trip Latency, and Average Packet Loss shall not exceed in any calendar month, when combined, the Access Fee paid by Customer for such month. In addition, the total amount credited under this SLA and under any other service level agreement or form of performance guarantee with respect to a Customer shall not exceed in any calendar month, when combined, the fees paid for the applicable services subject to such service level agreements or performance guarantees.

General
The Drooling Dog reserves the right to change or modify this SLA at any time effective upon the posting thereof on this website. Except as set forth in this SLA, The Drooling Dog makes no claims regarding the availability or performance of The Drooling Dog or The Drooling Dog services.